Students raise over $30,000 for cancer

By Вen Li

Twenty-one brave Management students and faculty members shed their locks on Wed., Apr. 9 raising over $30,000 for cancer research.

“I lost my mom to cancer. On Sunday, it will be two years ago,” said the event coordinator, and Commerce Undergraduate Society member Irfaan Sorathia. “This is something I wanted to do to raise some money for cancer.”

In addition to the participants who include professors Cynthia Simmons, Amy Pablo, Anne Kleffner, and PhD student and sessional instructor Keith Henning, Sorathia appreciates the efforts of fellow organizers Alyssa Dietrich and Jen Longmuin. He also stated that faculty members who promoted the event and contributions from over 500 donors made the fundraising event a success.

Management student Aaron Kroontje raised $450 for cancer.

“I did it as a sign of respect for Irfan here,” Kroontje said. “I knew a lot of people I have lost to cancer, and this is a good way to raise money. I’ve never done something like this before.”

Sorathia admits that this incarnation of the unnamed head-shaving for cancer event was rapidly organized–with planning commencing after winter reading week—but he hopes that it will provide the basis for an expanded annual affair.

“We’re looking to make this really big next year, to try to get it out to more students and to make it a whole day by inviting other faculties and doing it in MacEwan Hall,” said Sorathia.

Over the lunch hour, hundreds of people filled Scurfield Hall to watch the head shaving. Sorathia attributes this interest to the pervasiveness of cancer in the population.

“When we ask in a class who has been effected by cancer, almost everyone will put up their hands,” he said. “It affects everybody.”

Once tallied, money raised will go to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre via the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, an estimated 136,900 new cases of cancer and 66,200 deaths occurred in 2002 . On average, 2,633 Canadians are diagnosed with cancer every week.

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