The Alternative St. Baldrick’s

Lorrie DellaCroce, Staff Writer

Mepham High School hosts our own St. Baldrick’s Chop Your Locks Charity event every year in March. This is where people in our community are able to come together, show solidarity and raise money for the children battling cancer. Since 2008, Mepham has raised $377,000 to combat childhood cancer and we are increasing that number annually. People can donate by cutting eight or more inches of their hair or simply contribute money or what everyone comes to do, bring awareness by getting their heads shaved. The event is held in the gym and is filled with entertainment, special guests, music, and the presentation of our honored children.

This year due to the circumstances, Mepham was forced to postpone the event and it was potentially going to be forced to cancel. But Mepham’s students and teachers have come together to find another way to showcase the event. On Friday, June 5 beginning at 7pm, Mepham’s very own Broadcasting Program put together a huge Zoom telethon for all of the community to be a part of. This gave the viewers the opportunity to be involved in our tenth annual head shaving event to benefit the St. Baldrick’s Foundation right from your own home. It is just like our past events in the gym, with even more music, entertainment, and head-shaving to show solidarity for the children who continue to battle cancer. Once the viewers shaved their heads, they had the opportunity to share pictures via Mepham’s Instagram and Twitter, this way everyone can see the heart and effort put into this charity. The honored children were there with their families, along with certain teachers and administrators running the event. The two hosts, Lorrie DellaCroce and Rocco Law who are members of BMB guided the telethon with questions and conversations. They practiced the script beforehand with Mr. Stein to ensure the event went smoothly. BMB also hosted a couple of practice Zooms, along with a dress rehearsal, not only for everyone involved to know what would happen but for the technical team to be confident everything would run smoothly.

Under the conditions we are in, being able to include the children and their families on the telethon is amazing. We as in the BMB Program are creating individual videos about and for each of the strong children and their stories so that everyone knows them and what they have gone through to be a part of this event today. These moving videos will help grow the telethon as well as the donations to help the children and Mepham’s pledge to combat childhood cancer. We are glad we can do anything remotely similar to the real Chop Your Locks event this year because like everything else it could have been cancelled and given up on. So although it is different, it will definitely be a sight to see.