St. Baldrick's Day - How You Can Bring Out Your Charitable Side on St. Patrick's Day

Every March there are events that take place and the most popular is St Patrick's Day. This is a day of fun, food and celebration for Christians and yes, even some non-Christians as time goes by. But in the spirit of charity and good will toward those less fortunate there is an annual event that brings out that Christian nature of loving others more then ourselves. That celebration is called St Baldrick's Day.

St. Baldrick's Day: History

Although St. Baldrick's Day began as a nice thought between those plagued by childhood cancer it has exploded into the world's biggest volunteer-driven fundraising program!

It all started in 1999 when three Irish fellas: Tim Kenny, John Bender and Enda Mc Donnell decided to do something grand in order to help others. They turned their company's St. Patrick's Day party into a benefit for kids with cancer.

But at first they were at a loss for what they could do to touch the hearts of their colleagues enough for them to pay generously to help these kids that so desperately need a cure. John Bender then suggested that people would pay money to see Enda go bald. What seemed as a passing thought suddenly turned serious and the St Baldrick's Day idea was born. So, they planned to raise $17,000 on the 17^th with 17 colleagues ready to give up their hair for this cause.

*On the first actual St Baldrick's Day celebration on March 17^th 2000, they ended up raising over $104,000.

Every year people come on St Baldrick's Day willing to part with their hair and others come to part with their money. The idea behind it is to pay a sizable donation to see a person get shaved bald in honor of all those children that lose their hair due to the harsh cancer treatments.

St. Baldrick's Day: How You Can Help

There are so many ways you can help with St Baldrick's Day. You can be a 'shavee' if you can part with your hair, or you can be a 'shaver' and really get involved with the process. There are also ways you can organize and event to help spread the word about this wonderful event in the hopes to raise more money for the children currently fighting cancer, those who have beat it and those that have lost their live because of it. There are many ways you can volunteer your time.

These are not the only things you can do to help this annual charitable celebration. Here are few more ideas, if you would like to assist in one of these areas more information can be provided at www.stbaldricks.org:

• Auctions
• Tribute & Memorial Gifts
• Gifts of Stock
• Surf & Shop for the Cause
• Cell Phones & Inkjet Cartridges
• Car Donations

St. Baldrick's Day: March for a Good Cause!

March is already a festive time full of friends, laughter, food and drink... but for those children that are struggling just to survive the battle with this deadly disease there is no laughter, no happiness only suffering and sadness. As their families watch their babies helplessly, the pain is evident upon their faces, the days are both long and agonizing, but there is hope that one day there will be a cure and all of the deaths will not be for nothing.