Just when I thought I had seen every idea on the planet for fundraisers, another even more imaginative fundraiser emerges. The idea here is hair-raising!  Forget the walk-a-thon, the chocolate sales and eating at certain restaurants on certain nights.

St. Baldrick’s Day is an annual event where participants raise money to have their head shaved. Yep.  It’s the naked truth.  Being hairless once a year is seriously profitable for these fundraisers.  Last year, the small pub Finnigan’s Wake in Winston-Salem raised more than $45,000 in six hours!

Participants sign up for a shave and ask friends to sponsor them. Funds raised go to children’s cancer research.

St. Baldrick’s is an international non-profit that has raised more than $110 million since 2000. More than 60 St. Baldrick’s events were planned in the Carolinas in 2011.

This year’s event in Winston-Salem will be held starting at 2 p.m. this Saturday. Trade Street downtown will be shut down for the event and transformed into an outdoor barbershop, complete with barbers, chairs, tents, music, food and beer sponsors and auctions. Organizations like Locks of Love and Pantene help collect the hair to be donated to children who have lost their hair due to treatments.  The hair is used to make wigs for the children.  Excess hair is swept up and bagged and used to clean up oil spills in oceans!

Last year, a head was shaved every 3.42 minutes!  A local salon set up chairs in the street and shaved a total of 105 heads.  Apparently, having your head shaved is quite a fund-raising event!  The generosity of the community is evident. Pictures of the children who are being helped are posted. You can read the children’s stories on the St. Baldrick’s website.  Some of the children who have been helped show up for the event. The Winston-Salem fundraiser has grown from a one-chair event, to a six-chair event in 10 years.

Visit www.FinnigansWake.com for directions to the restaurant and www.stbaldricks.org to find a head-shaving, fundraising event near you.  If you ever wanted to be bald, here is your chance to try it for a cause!

What are some of your favorite fundraisers?

By DJ Stephan