Students at the Syracuse University College of Law have raised more than $7,500 to shave their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research.

Eight members of the SU law community are among the 184 participants who will volunteer in the ‘St. Baldrick’s Day’ event March 26 at Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub and Restaurant in Armory Square, said team leader Meghan McLees, a first-year law student. Seven of the members will have their head shaved; the eighth member is the designated barber.

St. Baldrick’s Day is a nationwide event that takes place around St. Patrick’s Day, when volunteers agree to shave their heads bald to raise funds for childhood cancer research.

‘Law students tend to be pretty conservative,’ McLees said. ‘So to go up to someone and ask them to shave their head – I wasn’t sure what the response would be.’

McLees’ team is made of six first-year law students, one of the student’s relatives and Tomas Gonzalez, director of student support services at the College of Law. Dean Hannah Arterian and several College of Law professors have donated money in addition to the nearly $100 in spare change and $1 bills collected outside E.I. White Hall, McLees said.

Peter Gioello, one of the students who will have his head shaved, said he collected about $1,200 from friends, family and teachers, but he expects the amount to increase by at least $500 by the day of the event.

‘People said I would never give up my hair; but she’s a girl, she’s making a bigger sacrifice,’ Gioello said of McLees. ‘It’s something easy that people can do and it’s for a good cause.’

This is the second year Kitty Hoynes will be hosting the event, said manager Erin Naughton.

Last year, with about six weeks planning, the restaurant raised almost $75,000, Naughton said. This year, the restaurant had collected $72,948 as of last Saturday, but Naughton expects cash and checks donated the day of the event to put the total past the goal of $100,000.

Donations raised at the Kitty Hoynes event are given to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation primarily donates to CureSearch Children’s Oncology Group, which treats 90 percent of all childhood cancer patients in North America, according to the foundation’s Web site.

McLees learned about St. Baldrick’s Day three or four years ago, when her father’s friend, a member New York Fire Department, participated in the event, she said. McLees’ father is a district chief in the Syracuse Fire Department.

This year, she decided to captain a team, and sent an e-mail to the SU College of Law community, McLees said.

McLees also approached the SU Law Student Senate, said Joseph Nosse, a law senator who will be having his head shaved on Sunday. The senate helped her establish a table at E.I. White Hall for collecting donations.

Two other team members, Rob Genthner and Anish Mathur, are also senators.

Published on March 20, 2006 at 12:00 pm