The Bison Buddies Club hosted its third annual St. Baldrick’s fundraiser in the gym on March 11 in partnership with the Excel TECC Marketing Hope Heroes company.
Students wore green, and many dyed their hair to show support throughout the day. Students and staff participated in a large game of musical chairs and watched a live dance performance by the school’s Super Chil dance group.
At the end of the assembly, the school cheered on the five students who chose to shave their heads in support of children enduring childhood cancer: freshman Aaron Zheng, sophomore Joseph Mo and Juniors Tony Zheng, Junbo Wang and Lauren Nagy-Oleski.
Senior Eliana Worku, a member of the Bison Buddies leadership team, felt the assembly was a success.
“We had good numbers this year I think, and honestly, we were very happy with how things turned out,” she said.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a non-profit organization that raises funds for childhood cancer research.
The Bison Buddies Club is a peer-to-peer mentoring program where high school students go to the middle school to tutor and mentor students seeking support beyond what their teachers can give them.
In the past, the club has organized fundraisers to raise money for the St.Baldrick’s Foundation.
This year, however, they took it in a slightly different direction.
“For the past two years, we were doing more basic fundraisers, like goods donations, but this year, we wanted to do something more impactful,” Worku said. “Instead of raising money, we decided to do more of an awareness campaign, and that’s where we came up with promoting St. Baldrick’s through social media and the idea for the assembly.”
Senior Radha Pareek, also a member of the Bison Buddies leadership team, explained why she believes an awareness campaign is just as important as fundraising.
“Wearing green or dying your hair green obviously is not going to cure cancer, but it can spark that conversation of why you are wearing green, and show support for the community and really be able to transform pain into passion and purpose,” she said.
Partnering with the marketing program was also critical in making the event successful.
“Along with the social media promotion, it was very helpful to have Hope Heroes to support us with that cause,” Worku said. “Obviously, Hope Heroes is already bigger and it also contains students from different schools like Orange, Chagrin Falls and Shaker, so having those kids as well helped spread the word and just the idea of St. Baldrick’s to more than just Beachwood kids.”
Pareek explained that she and other organizers tried to get underclassmen involved in the planning.
“One of the things that we really focused on in organizing and coordinating this effort was that juniors and sophomores would be leading at the forefront, and they did,” she said. “A lot of it was a collaborative teaching process and environment and we hope that they will carry forth these efforts and make them bigger and brighter in future years.”
Worku hopes the conversation won’t end whether or not their efforts are continued.
“I think students will be able to continue the sentiment they had this year by showing solidarity to kids who are fighting with cancer,” she said. “Dyeing hair green and wearing green shirts doesn’t do much but I feel like it at least educated people and sparks up that conversation and I hope that conversation can continue even when we’re gone.”
