Hundreds gather at St. Baldrick’s event in Rockville Centre to help fund cancer research

After Rockville Centre’s 23rd annual St. Patrick’s Parade, hundreds headed to the St. Agnes Parish Center on March 23 for an after-party of sorts — the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s head-shaving and pony tail-chopping event.

Rockville Centre resident John Bender and two of his colleagues started the tradition two decades ago, and the foundation, which raises money for pediatric cancer research, has collected more than $4 million over the past 16 years at its Rockville Centre event alone.

Professionals from Underground Hair Salon, Colori Bella Hair Studio and Pioneer Barber Shop, along with BOCES students, took hair off of 150 shavees, as hundreds more looked on. About $400,000 was raised in total, organizers said.

Five local bands played music, and parents of cancer survivors and those who have died from the disease addressed the crowd. The event remembered Rockville Centre children who died of cancer over the last year, including 5-year-old Gabriella O. Pellicani and Mary Ruchalski, 12, as well as the niece of Mayor Francis X. Murray, Kimiko Schroder, also 12, of San Diego, who died in January after an eight-year battle with neuroblastoma. 

In 2005, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation officially became a nonprofit charity. The Rockville Centre event is one of many held throughout the country under the St. Baldrick’s name — a mashup of St. Patrick’s Day and “bald,” which sum up the foundation’s beginnings. The foundation, in total, has funded $258 million in research grants to 374 institutions in 29 countries.