The anticipation of the Saint Baldricks event was endless, consisting of constantly watching hours of experience videos on YouTube about the event, and getting thousands of dollars of donations. When the time finally came Kassidy Hollinger ’18 was awed by how similar it looked to the videos. This is really happening she thought.

After waiting for a while with all her supporters by her side, she heard her name get called. The stage was set up at Palmers Place in LaGrange, on March 16, with stools lined up ready for people to sit. Proudly, she took a seat greeted by a stranger with a shaver in hand. Her heart was beating fast as the woman shaved a thick pony tail off her head. Soon enough, all of her hair was gone leaving her with just a bald head.

Hollinger knew she was going to do this when she found out it was going to be the five-year anniversary of when her ten year old brother, Owen Hollinger, went into remission. She knew she had to do something to raise awareness, and after looking into the organization, she decided this was the perfect way, Kassidy said.

When her brother was first diagnosed, it was devastating for her family.

“Our family’s schedule was drastically  changed, and the hospital became a second home,” Kassidy said.

He was diagnosed on October 27, 2010 with pleuro pulmonary blastoma but it later developed into stage 4, group 4 metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma. Owen was in the hospital when he was very young leaving him stuck in a hospital for a lot of his life.

“My family was all really supportive and came to visit me all the time,” Owen said.

Knowing that living with cancer is really hard for her brother she told him that she was going to shave her head for him.

“That’s really cool, your going to be bald,” Owen said as a reaction to the news.

Kassidy said that it’s really different with less hair, but it’s a lot easier to take care of.

“I don’t regret anything” Kassidy said.

Kassidy ended up raising $2060 and she donated 12 in of her hair.