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Afternoon haircuts generate $20,000 for charity

Balding for Dollars attracts 15 people willing to go bald at fundraising event
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MONEY FOR SOMETHING Dean Fyfe kicked off the annual Balding for Dollars event at the GLC and raised more than $500 for the cancer program at B.C. Children’s Hospital. PHoto by John French

There’s cancer in Dean Fyfe’s life and that is what has prompted him to shave his head every year for more years than he can remember.

Fyfe joined Leslie Weir, Rob Phillips, nine-year-old Nathan Lee and more than 10 others in raising funds for the B.C. Children’s Hospital Balding for Dollars event on Sunday.

“I was trying to raise a thousand dollars,” said Fyfe after his hair was shaved at the GLC. “I think my total was $556.”

Event organizer Dave Clark said the running tally going into the holiday Sunday event was $13,500 with a goal to raise $15,000.

The final Twitter update from the Balding for Dollars organizers indicated more than $20,000 was raised this year.

While the Blackcomb Barber Shoppe team used shavers to remove hair between 3:30 and 5 p.m. at the GLC the Hairfarmers played music for the après ski crowd and those gathered to watch the balding process.

One of the most anticipated shaves of the day was the one connected to Nathan. For the past 19 months, he has been looking forward to having his long curly afro completely eliminated.

Just before taking the barber’s chair, Nathan said he had raised $5,000.

“I’ll take more,” he told a crowd of people after he was asked what his tally was coming into the event.

Nathan’s original goal was to raise $2,500. Clark indicated Nathan’s total went well beyond $5,000.

The money raised by Nathan and the others who collected funds will go to the cancer program at B.C. Children’s Hospital.

This was the 11th year for Whistler’s Balding for Dollars and in the history of the event it has raised nearly $200,000. Clark said he and his wife Wendy would be stoked to eclipse the $200,000 mark.

The Blackcomb Barber Shoppe saved locks that are long enough for use in the creation of wigs for cancer patients undergoing treatments that result in hair loss.

Fyfe said after the event that he plans to have his head shaved again next year.