A Family Affair - St. Baldrick's

Editor’s note: Andy Lautzenheiser and his mom Kelly, an oncology nurse at Children’s, shave their heads every year to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit, volunteer charity that funds research to find cures to childhood cancer. We asked Andy to share with us why the event is so important to him and why he chooses to shave his head every year.

Hello All. My name is Andy and I wanted to share my story with St. Baldrick’s. You can raise money by having people donate money to your cause and at the end of the event you have your head shaved as a thanks to everyone. Right now I am 15 years old and this March will be my 4th year to shave my head for St. Baldrick's.

I first did it when I was in 6th grade when I heard that my mom was going to shave her head for St. Baldrick’s. My mom is a nurse practitioner at Children’s and takes care of kids with cancer. I thought it was a great idea, so I asked my mom if I could shave my head with her and she said I could if I really wanted to. So, for the next few months I grew out my hair until it was the day of the event. My goal was to raise $500 and at the end I raised $925! The event where you shave your head was amazing. It is a whole festivity where everyone that gets their head shaved goes on a stage and there is a ton of cheering. You tell everyone about yourself and then you get your head shaved while everyone cheers. Then you stay and watch everyone else get there head shaved. You get a t-shirt and pictures and then you get to go home with a great summer cut!

I was kind of nervous about what people would say when I went to school. The next Monday when I was walking into school I could tell that everyone was staring at me, and I was thinking that it was actually kind of cool. Through the day I got a bunch of comments like "did you lose a bet?" or "you have cancer!" and they were kind of getting annoying but I didn't really care about what people thought about me and after I told them that I shaved my head to raise money to find a cure for kids cancer everyone went pretty quiet about their comments after that.

It feels great having no hair because you feel a lot lighter and your head is cooler. It was so much fun that I have been shaving my head every year since. One year there was a kid at my school that had cancer, I asked him to shave my head for St. Baldrick’s that year which was really fun. I love shaving my head for this good cause and I will continue to do this every year.    

Cops bring holiday cheer to Children’s

Most of the time when you see a cop, there may be some unpleasant associations. But for kids in the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (CCBD) at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, that’s definitely not the case: The police are their buddies.
Each year for the past 6 years, members of the Dallas Police Department SWAT Team, and now its Motorcycle unit, have visited the CCBD at the holidays to distribute gifts and visit with the children.
This year, a group of about two dozen police men and police women came bearing gifts and to play games with the kids in the inpatient unit and the outpatient clinic. There was a vigorous game of Jenga™, a battle in air hockey and some Super Mario Brothers™ action going on in the inpatient playroom. The police were as much into the games as the children.
The combined SWAT and Motorcyle teams also donated a new Wii™ Fun Center™ mobile entertainment unit with funds raised from their annual motorcycle ride for charity. That’s the second Fun Center the DPD group has donated. Fun Centers are sponsored by the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
So the next time you see a police man or police woman from Dallas, give ‘em a wave. They may just have brightened up a patient’s holidays at Children’s.