Most teenage girls value their hair more than they care to admit. Whether it’s long or short, curly or straight, girls use their hair to express themselves. For juniors Brianna Sotkovsky and Isabel Dimoff, however, the statement they’re trying to make is in the absence of hair.
This May, Sotkovsky and Dimoff will shave their heads through the Saint Baldrick’s Foundation to raise money for pediatric cancer and to show solidarity with young cancer patients.
Dimoff had the idea to shave her head since Saint Baldrick’s first visited Shaker in 2011. “I wanted to do it freshman year, but my parents wouldn’t let me,” she said. “It took two years to get my parents on board.”
Dimoff was disappointed when Saint Baldrick’s didn’t visit Shaker in 2012 and decided along with Sotkovsky, juniors Josh Payne and Emma Cirillo and social studies teacher Paul Kelly to bring a head-shaving fundraiser back to Shaker for 2013.
Sotkovsky has personal motivations for participating in Saint Baldrick’s. “I’ve lost two grandparents to cancer, and my mom’s sister had cancer,” said Sotkovsky, whose goal is to raise $1000 from sponsors by the time she shaves her head. While Dimoff has not lost any family members to cancer, she explained “shaving my head would help make me a role model for other children without hair.”
As the date approaches for the pair to radically change their appearances, neither has considered how different being bald is going to be. With the current cold weather and approaching hot summer, going without hair will have its challenges, but Dimoff and Sotkovsky are ready to face them for the sake of children with cancer.
Sotkovsky joked, “I’m asking for beanies from everyone.”
