Braving a Shaving to Conquer Childhood Cancers

When Charles Collier’s 6-year-old daughter, Payton, wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love, a charity that provides hairpieces to children suffering from long-term medical hair loss, he was all for it.

Soon after that experience Payton, now age 9, was asking her dad to do the same. He chose St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a philanthropic organization raising money for research to find a cure for cancer.

On March 4, for the third year in a row, Collier, with a full head of hair and a bushy beard, sat in a chair with his youngest daughter in tow at a local Kent Island pub and was shorn for the cause. As Collier’s locks fell to the floor, 15-month-old Jayden spied her hairless papa and didn’t recognize his barren scalp and face.

As a part of its 2018, Queen Anne’s County Shave for the Brave, 20 volunteers raised $6,700. Robyn Collier, Charles’ mother and an employee at Stertil-Koni, said she believes that over the past six years the local campaign’s donations total around $40,000. Stertil-Koni contributed to her son’s selfless feat.

St. Baldrick’s Foundation, based in California, started with one head-shaving fundraising event in 2000, raising $104,000. In its first year as an independent foundation in 2005, the event grew, as did the donations for fighting childhood cancer. Since then, St. Baldrick’s volunteers – both men and women – have raised $234 million in research grants. Today, the event is staged at more than 1,000 venues, including churches, schools, pubs, restaurants, parks firehouses, military bases and more.

To contribute to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation on Charles Collier’s webpage, click here.