Roland Rogers Participating in St. Baldrick's Day Events

Be bold. Be brave. Go bald this St. Patrick's Day.

Several groups are currently finalizing plans to hold St. Baldrick's Day events throughout the Atlantic County region, including events scheduled for Mays Landing Country Club in Mays Landing March 11 and the Roland Rogers Elementary School in Galloway Township March 14.

Other St. Baldrick's Day events include two events scheduled for Atlantic City March 17. More information about those events and how to participate in any of these or Lisa Erlandson's event at Mays Landing Country Club can be found at stbaldricks.org. There are links at the Web page to sign up to participate, as well as to donate.

The first of these events will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on March 11 at the Mays Landing Country Club and is being organized by Egg Harbor Township resident  Erlandson.

This is the 10th year in which Erlandson has organized the annual event, though this is the first year that it will be held at the country club. It was previously held in Somers Point.

Erlandson's son Matthew, now 15, was diagnosed with cancer when he was under the age of 5.

The young man is now in remission; however, his battle with the disease prompted his mother to look at ways to raise money for cancer research. She came across St. Baldrick's Foundation after reading an article about it more than a decade ago.

"All I wanted to do was to get 10 men to shave their heads and raise $1,000," she said about organizing that first year's event, never imagining that it would evolve to an annual event. "I thought that was the only time I was going to do it."

Due to the response she received and interest from participants to return the following year, she turned the event to an annual event.

That's how Brian Dunn, of Galloway Township, came to organize his event on March 14 at Roland Rogers Elementary School, where he is a fifth-grade teacher.

"I'm a big fan of Lisa's," he said. "She was the first to bring St. Baldrick's to our area and has great passion for the cause. I first got involved when I was a volunteer at the Absecon Fire Department. We had a group who shaved from there for a few years, and when I moved to Galloway I decided to represent Roland Rogers and the Galloway Township Public Schools."

But when Erlandson was unable to hold the event last year, Dunn decided to organize his own event at the school.

"This turned out great as the students were better able to connect with the cause.  We stream the shaving to all of the classrooms so everyone has a front row seat."

This year the school staff has chosen to make this their main charity, Dunn said. "And we are trying to get the students involved in fundraising even more than before."

Last year, bins were placed in the school's lobby and students were able to drop donations in.  

"We had limited success with this, but there were other charity fund raisers going on at the same time," Dunn said, noting that collections will be made in each classroom this year.  

For every $5 that a student donates during the four week period, they will receive a "lucky charm" with their name on it. It'll be hung in the lobby, similar to how Wawa hangs the paper shoes when raising money for Multiple Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Once the shaving date comes around, school staff will randomly choose from the lucky charms to award class prizes that local businesses would donate. Any business interested in helping can contact Dunn at biff215@gmail.com.

Any business who is interested in donating to Erlandson's March 11 St. Baldrick's event can contact her at 609-927-6804 or email her at keleceme@aol.com.

The public can also do their part. Even though the Roland Rogers Elementary School event is open only to the school community, the public can still donate by going to St. Baldrick's Foundation's website at stbaldrcks.org and go to the school's event page by hitting the location icon and filling in the school's name or a ZIP code. Once the page is up, there is a link people can then hit to donate.

"If we reach our goal of $5,000, Assistant Principal Mike Silvestri will also shave his head," Dunn noted.

The St. Baldrick's day events are so named because of the events being held around St. Patrick's Day and due to participants shaving their heads for childhood cancer research. The money raised from these events are turned over to the St. Baldrick's Foundation, which, in turn, uses the money to fund research for kids with cancer and to help the top pediatric oncologists in the U.S. guide research priorities. Last year alone, $22 million worldwide was raised to fund critical research of childhood cancers.