Beaver Co. Firefighters Shave Heads To Raise Money For Childhood Cancer
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Don't be surprised to see firefighters in Beaver County wearing hats for the next couple of weeks to keep their heads warm.
One volunteer fire company all decided to shave their heads to raise money for cancer research.
They heard the words no parent ever wanted to hear.
"When we found out he had neuroblastoma, our world just turned upside down," Shannon Myers
The people of Ellwood City rallied around the Myers family when little Gavin died of cancer about three weeks after he turned one.
"Almost every business in Ellwood City has donated some type of donation whether it be a cash donation, food donation, water, gift cards, anything like that. It's a community event," Rick Myers said.
The stars of the show were the Big Knob Volunteer Fire Department as 15 members agreed to shave their heads.
"Two of our oldest members were here and shaved their heads and you know, it's just a great group of guys that we try to do things together and anybody would do anything to help a little kid. So, this just meshed right in there with anybody's heart and what we do as volunteers," John Murtha said.
The idea of raising money by shaving heads comes from the St. Baldrick's Foundation. They challenge men to shave their heads in the fight against childhood cancer.
"They would hold a Christmas dinner every year and donate money to a charitable foundation. They decided instead of doing that they would come up with their own foundation and what they do is raise money now for childhood cancer research," Rick Myers said.
This was the fourth year for the event in the memory of little Gavin. In the first three years, they raised more than $50,000 in Beaver County.
"As a fire department, we talked about it and decided we were going to make a valiant effort to see what we could do and go from there," Murtha said.
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