In
recent years, tens of thousands of people have been
shorn for charity.
St. Baldrick's does it for medical research. Locks
of Love has done it to provide hairpieces for those
with cancer.
Roni Stroud has upped the ante. Stroud went bald Thursday
to raise money for the Kiwanis Family House in Sacramento,
but her commitment goes beyond that.
She will model her Full Britney in front of millions
of people Saturday - the live and television viewers
of the Tournament of Roses Parade.
Stroud, president of the Folsom Lake Kiwanis Club
(motto: "The Best Club by a Dam Site"),
will ride the annual Kiwanis float in the parade -
no hat, no wig. Parade organizers don't know whether
she's the first bald woman to go uncovered in the
parade, but they couldn't remember any others.
For $2,000 Stroud could have bought a seat on the
Kiwanis float, but she has a soft spot in her heart
for the Family House - the pet project of Kiwanis
in the Sacramento area. Her dilemma, she said, was:
"I could ride the float or give it to the house."
Then she thought of Airyanna Cain. When Airyanna was
9 years old, her family had come from Anderson, near
Redding, and stayed at the house while Airyanna underwent
leukemia treatments at UC Davis Medical Center. The
house is kind of an unsung Ronald McDonald House,
run almost entirely on local donations and volunteers.
When Stroud thought of Cain, she had a brainstorm.
She would offer to shave her head if people voted
for her to do so - at $10 a vote. It would, she hoped,
raise more than $2,000. In the end, the 500 no-shave
votes (and the $5,000 they raised) were dwarfed by
shave-it votes.
Because a fellow Kiwanis club in Grass Valley came
up with about $2,500, Stroud traveled there Thursday
from her El Dorado Hills home to be shaved. Facing
about as many cameras as a White House press conference
- though mostly point-and-shoots - Stroud sat down
in the courtyard of Kane's Restaurant.
Stylist Lori Dever - who'd never before sheared off
a healthy woman's full head of hair - took it off,
hank by hank, to catcalls and lame jokes. "You'll
save on shampoo," called one of the assembled
Kiwanis, who came from Folsom, Sacramento, West Sacramento,
Rocklin and other clubs.What she saves on shampoo,
she may spend on wigs - which she figures she'll wear
for about a year while her hair grows back.
She'll have a lasting souvenir of the experience,
though. She plans to have a rose (for the parade)
and a hummingbird (one of the float motifs) tattooed
on the back of her neck, where the hair will grow
over it.
The Family House - for families with kids in treatment
at UC Davis Medical Center - will get at least $15,000
from Stroud's effort. And one more bonus: Though she's
more publicity shy than Stroud, Cain, now 18, will
ride the float too, but with a full head of hair.
There's more we could say, but in the spirit of Stroud's
stunt, we'll cut this short.
HOW TO HELP
Those who wish to donate to the Kiwanis Family House
in Sacramento can find information at www.kiwanisfamilyhouse.org
or look up Locks for the House on Facebook.
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