Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Over 30 Stone Mills firefighters, a handful of paramedics, a local business owner and the township’s building inspector answered the call to Shave It For Shae, raising $44,575.
Throughout the month of May they collected pledges from the community and on May 30 they all filmed themselves shaving their head or moustache and posted it to social media. Video of the event can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Dq_nYwXY8.
That money was donated to Shae-Lynn Way, a 22-year-old from Tamworth who is battling cancer and is expected to require several trips to Ottawa for treatment.
“We have a really, really super amazing community that embrace this family,” said Kylie Hinch, a local firefighter who organized the event. “It was just a lot of local people who came together to help out. We never thought in one month we’d ever be that successful.”
Because it was all online and the participants shaved their own heads, the fundraiser adhered to physical distancing rules while still generating a substantial donation to the Way family.
Following the success of Shave It For Shae, a second fundraiser has emerged on social media entitled the Three Shot Challenge. The friendly challenge calls for people to nominate their friends on Facebook to record themselves taking three shots (of any drink of their choice) and post it to social media within 24 hours. If they don’t do it, they’re then called upon to donate money to the Way family. Most people have taken to donating money even after successfully completing the challenge.
“It took off like wildfire,” Hinch said of the Three Shot Challenge.
“We can’t go to the bars and have three shots, this way we do it at home and we’re supporting someone,” said Hinch.
Donations to the cause can be made to ShaveItForShae@gmail.com.