Annual St. Baldrick’s Childhood Cancer Head-shaving event returns after two year pandemic pause

KINSTON N.C. (WITN) -Haircuts, smiles, and fellowship were all on display Wednesday during the 9th annual St. Baldrick’s head-shaving event held at East Coast Wings and Grill.

Some Kinston residents came into the event with hair but left holding onto the memories.

“It was hard yeah know winter’s coming up, you want long hair and wear a hat but I saw other people doing and I was like I’m just going to do it,” said head-shaving participant David Price. “Give back to the community a little bit, anyway I can. I got my ear nicked but it’s all good.”

The unique event is centered around volunteers shaving their heads to help raise money for lifesaving childhood cancer research.

This is the first year it has been held in almost two and a half years due to the pandemic and St. Baldrick’s head-shaving chief organizer David Ricke says it’s like they’re playing catch up because they missed out on a lot.

“This year is kind of like a rebuilding year for us because we had to take a pause during the coronavirus,” Ricke said. “We call it the ninth annual event, it’s our ninth event but it’s been about two and a half years since we had our last event so we are trying to build up our event base again.”

In addition to supporting the worthy cause, the event also featured live music, food, and raffles.

Every two minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer worldwide, and in the U.S. one and five kids diagnosed won’t survive.

Volunteers like Justin Barnett and his son Jackson who went bald for the cause, say they hope to be a part of the change that comes in helping kids with the disease.

“Help as many kids as we can, I encourage our church to not just pray for cures for cancer but do what we can to actually make it happen,” Barnett said. “Supporting St. Baldrick’s and trying to raise money for childhood cancer research is one of the ways that we can do that. Try to help children that are battling cancer.”

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