Las Vegas Weekly

March 3, 2009 · 7:54 AM

Hundreds of heads to be shaved to raise funds to fight children’s cancer

By Robin Leach

St. Baldrick's Day at McMullan's Irish Pub in 2008.

Photo: McMullan's Irish Pub

For the third consecutive year, the Irish pub trade in Las Vegas will raise funds to research and conquer childhood cancer with a head-shaving party this Saturday. “St. Baldrick’s Day” at McMullan’s Irish Pub opposite The Orleans has raised more than $350,000 the past two years with the campaign, and now Quinn’s Irish Pub in Green Valley Ranch is joining the worthy cause.

Brian McMullan said: “We don’t have a huge formal dinner or silent auction as our fundraiser. Rather, we have had hundreds of people from throughout Southern Nevada show up and sponsor their neighbors, friends and even strangers who are willing to have their heads shaved to bond with children who have lost their hair to cancer.”

The 13-hour fundraiser will start at 2 p.m. and run until 3 a.m. Sunday with celebrities, special performers and bands, so please come down and support us. I’ve agreed to be one of the emcees during one 300-volunteer shaving session!

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, based in Pasadena, Calif., was founded less than a decade ago by 17 people who wanted to do more to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than sit around and drink Irish beer. One of them offered children’s cancer research as a fundraising recipient, and the participants had a goal of raising $1,000 each.

After raising more than 10 times that amount, the annual event mushroomed and is now held in pubs, firehouses, restaurants, meeting halls, high school gyms and other venues in 18 countries and 48 U.S. states, where more than 72,000 shaved heads attest to the volunteers’ $50 million fundraising efforts all over the world.

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