Tags Posts tagged with "St. Baldrick’s Day"

St. Baldrick’s Day

Three Village Dads Foundation held a fundraiser April 16 to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Food trucks were available during the event. Photo from Three Village Dads Foundation

On Sunday, April 16, Three Village Dads Foundation ran an event to raise money for a local chapter of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. The St. Baldrick’s website states it is “a volunteer and donor powered charity committed to supporting the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives.”

Three Village Dads Foundation held a fundraiser April 16 to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Some attendees, including David Tracy, below, chairman and CEO, had their heads shaved to help raise funds. Photo from Three Village Dads Foundation

Over the years, Three Village Dads have raised over $225,000 for local causes. They adopted the local St. Baldrick’s chapter last year and moved the event to the Veterans of Foreign War Post 3054 in East Setauket. 

David Tracy, chairman and CEO of 3VDF, is a VFW member.

“We had about 60 or 70 people come down last year,” Tracy said in a phone interview. “It was a bit rainy. So, it kind of muted the overall attendance. However, we still ended up raising $22,000 for St. Baldrick’s.”

This year 3VDF followed the same format but it was a much nicer day, with about 100 guests in attendance. There were vendors donating their time to feed the guests, and Setauket Fire Department brought a fire truck for children to climb on.

About 45 minutes into the event, two women showed up, one wearing a jacket with the words “Suffolk County Health Department.” “They both have clipboards, and they have very serious faces,” Tracy said. “They’re just saying, ‘You need to shut down, this is not a permitted event.’”

This surprised Tracy, as he explained to them that this was a private event on private property. They countered that the event was advertised to the public, so it was a public event. Tracy then offered to buy a permit, but he was informed that that is impossible on a Sunday.

“I asked [one of them] to maybe use discretion, to maybe call her boss and just let me talk to him — and just nothing,” Tracy said. “She wasn’t having it.”

Tracy believes that one of the two women works for the Tobacco Enforcement Unit of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. “They were there to target the one vendor whose business model is a cigar and bourbon experience.”

“They tell me over and over, ‘These vendors have to stop,’” Tracy said. He explained that he was “willing to pay the fines, whatever the fines may be, but this is a fundraiser for childhood cancer research. We are not shutting down. We have two more hours left.”

One woman proceeded to go up to each vendor, go into their trailers, ask them questions and take pictures, according to Tracy. He said that this upset a lot of their guests.

“There were a lot of people that were paying attention to what was going on with her and her inspections, as opposed to paying attention to the 10 brave people to get up there and shave their heads in front of the public to raise money for charity,” Tracy said.

“I guess what bothers me the most is that if they knew about this a few days ago or a few weeks ago, why not just pick up the phone and give us a call,” Tracy said. “We would have rectified it.”

“It just reeks of bad government decisions, and we would like somebody to answer for that,” he added. “Whose call was this? Whose ultimate determination? Who has it out for my friend’s business?”

“I will gladly pay that fine if need be and we will gladly get permits next year. But the way this was handled is just all wrong,” Tracy said. “I would like [to make] a public apology to my organization, to the St. Baldrick’s organization, to the vendors, because there’s a much better way of handling this, especially if they knew about it ahead of time.”

The citation that Tracy received read as follows, “Organizer found operating a temporary food service event to the public without a valid permit.” It also said that 3VDF allowed “food vendors to serve food to the public without valid permits to operate.”

Suffolk County Department of Health Services did not respond to a request for comment prior to press time.

Visitors to a Stony Brook bar and restaurant were looking for more than food and drink March 15, they were aiming to help out a good cause.

The Bench hosted a St. Baldrick’s Day fundraiser Sunday where participants got their heads shaved to raise funds for childhood cancer research. Lead organizer Christopher Pollina said with donations and a company match, participants surpassed the total event goal of $20,000.

According to the organizer the nonprofit group Three Village Dads raised more than half of that amount, and its foundation donated an additional $1,000.

Rob Meo raised the highest amount of the day with $5,000. During the event, Boy Scout troops 70 and 427, both from Setauket, stopped by to have their heads shaved by Amanda Bellavance of Dapper Cuts Barbershop and donate funds. Music was provided by Mike Rutowitcz of Sound’s Alive Entertainment.

Pollina and co-organizer Scott Montekew were pleased with the results from the second annual event at The Bench.

“We topped last year’s $12,500 raised, even during this trying time of COVID-19,” Pollina said.

Napper Tandy’s in Northport hosted its annual St. Baldrick’s Day event March 7 where participants shave their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research.

Barbers from various locations, as well as those provided by Eastern Suffolk BOCES teacher Luke Mahoney, were on hand to do the shaving. The day also included Irish step dancing by the Mulvihill-Lynch Studio of Irish Dance, raffles and entertainment by Redmax Events. In addition, more than 100 knit hats were donated by knitters from St. Anthony of Padua R.C. Church in East Northport. The event drew people from all over.

Bob Nolan, who lives in Croton-on-Hudson, said it was his fifth year shaving his head, adding he feels every little thing helps.

Gary Norman, of Long Island City, has been shaving his head for 15 years. He said he was in the hospital with his own battle against cancer, and when he saw the children, it broke his heart.

Northport’s Betty Reidenbach has been shaving her head for 15 years after a friend introduced her to the event, and she said she knows children who have been affected by cancer. 

Tommy McEneny, who lives in Northport and will turn 4 years old on St. Patrick’s Day, said he shaved his head to help other children.

Lynn Kenny, lead event organizer, said there were approximately 96 shavees and at press time the event had raised more than $100,000 with donations still coming in and being counted. She said Northport High School held an event the night before where they had 99 shavees. At press time, the high school event was up to $70,000. She said it was the first time the school held a St. Baldrick’s event.

“I’m so proud of our town and their continued commitment to help us in the fight again childhood cancer,” Kenny said. “In the years that Northport has held St Baldrick’s events, we have raised $6 million. Northport really is a small town with a huge heart.”

Additional reporting by Lina Weingarten

Miller’s Ale House in Commack hosted a St. Baldrick’s Day event March 8 to raise money for childhood cancer research.

According to Wayne Forte, lead organizer, the event raised nearly $50,000 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation with 72 shavees. In the past 10 years, the Commack event has raised $500,000 for the  nonprofit.

On hand for the event were eight members of the Fr. Judge Knights of Columbus. At press time, the team raised nearly $6,000 for the cause, according to member Bob Slingo. The team is still accepting donations at www.stbaldricks.org/teams/FrJudgeKofC2020.

On March 22, the Centereach Civic Association hosted a St. Baldrick’s Day event at the Centereach Fire Department’s main firehouse on Washington Avenue.

The night included head shaving to raise money for pediatric cancer, and barbers and hairdressers from Rockabilly in Stony Brook and Blondie’s Salon in Centereach were on hand to shave the heads of men, women and children.

The event also included food, raffles and a performance by Irish step dancers from the Mulvihill-Lynch Studio of Irish Dance. A grand total of $28,608 was raised.

AnnMarie Pszybylski, from St. James, said she was prepared to have her head shaved March 20 at an event at R.C. Murphy Junior High School in Stony Brook to raise money for Alexa, a Murphy student who is a cancer survivor. When she found out the event was only for students, she reached out to the organizer of the Centereach event, Jennifer Bielmeier Dickson, to see if she could get her head shaved there and donate the money to Alexa’s team. The answer was yes.

“These children are the brave ones and the strong ones,” Pszybylski said. “If I was able to help in some small way, I’m thrilled and blessed.”

Pszybylski said when she arrived at the firehouse she met the team Soul Sisters for Sophia comprised of shavees Diane Miller, Liann Dennis, Linda Esposito-Azmitia and  Lisette Robustelli and volunteers Susan Smith and Renata Ptak. The women, who were raising money for a Dawnwood Middle School student named Sophia diagnosed with stage three nasopharyngeal carcinoma in December, invited her to get her head shaved with them. Miller said her team raised nearly $8,000, with Robustelli raising  more than $2,500 of the amount.

More than 100 attendees shave their heads to raise funds for pediatric cancer

 

Dozens of people lined up to boldly go bald at the Northport-East Northport school district’s St. Baldrick’s Day event March 9. The event raised more than $63,000 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds childhood cancer research.

Among the top teams were the East Northport Middle School Bald Tigers, led by teacher John Braun, raising more than $22,000. The team dedicated this year’s shave in memory of Caleb Paquet. Paquet, 19, died in August 2017 after a battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Braun grew a green mohawk for the occasion while marking the side of his head with “Caleb’s Army.” The Bellerose Fuzzballs, of Bellerose Elementary School, also raised more than $10,000 for the cause.