On April 18, 2015, Instituto Health Science Career Academy’s (IHSCA) National Honors Society organized a St. Baldrick’s event to help support research for childhood cancers.
According to the St. Baldrick’s website, St. Baldrick’s foundation is a charity to fund research to find cures for cancers, mostly targeted to childhood cancer and helping spread awareness of cancer by getting the community to donate money or hair, even by cheering on those who participated in shaving their heads.
St. Baldrick’s brings 820 grants at 329 institutions in 22 countries to help find cures for childhood cancer by funding many organizations in research.
The IHSCA event was organized and planned by the National Honors Society (NHS) members and its staff, Mr. Joseph Banyai and Mrs. Rhonda Hartwell. NHS is a group that brings together qualified candidates to get involved with the community.
“I feel special… honored, because we get to help organizations like St. Baldrick’s to find a specific way in problems… by helping fulfill and like raise money and awareness,” said Ana Maya, a Junior National Honor Society member.
Students participated by shaving their heads or by volunteering to help in preparation of the event.
Carlos Aldalco, a Sophomore at IHSCA, participated in the event by shaving and donating his hair. Carlos says, “Well, I was very excited when I heard that IHSCA was having a St. Baldrick’s event. The reason I was excited was because there was an opportunity to either help someone in need or just show support and bring awareness.”
Students were mainly the ones who shaved their heads; the students who shaved said they were proud to shave to bring knowledge into cancer and be a part of the event.
“I feel great waking up every morning and seeing that my hair was used to someone’s advantage and I know that my hair will grow back,” Carlos added.
For the preparation of the St. Baldrick’s event, members say that they were organized and that they planned well.
Ana Maya endorses that the event was greatly planned. She said, “I think in a way… we did do a good job in preparing for the event because we were well-organized. We had lots of time to prepare and we let it known that St. Baldrick’s event was going on… there was flyers everywhere.”
However, Carlos responded, “Maybe what could have been better [is] if the students actually got involved in the event. I think the future NHS students should advertise the event better and actually explain what St. Baldrick’s is.”
Mr. Banyai added, “I think we should have done it during school to get more students at the event. Next year we want to get more pledges from students to drive the popularity of the event up.”
He continued, “As a school we raised $1,575.90. This included the money raised at lunchtime by the students, Mrs.Debock’s fund from the freshmen ($170), as well as money raised at the actual event in the cafeteria.”
“We aimed high. We wanted to reach 4,000. Better to aim high and miss than to aim too low.”
Leslie Diaz, a member of NHS, said, “Our goal I know was 4,000, so we got half of what we wanted. So yeah, I was disappointed that we didn’t get as much as we wanted, but overall I guess its okay, we had people supporting and participating in the event.”
But Mr. Banyai responded, “I thought it was the coolest experiences I have been a part of. Obviously the idea of raising money for children with cancer is sweet and a great cause, but the event itself surpassed all the expectations.”
By: Jennifer Sandoval
The Phoenix Flames 
You all did a wonderful job and this was a great beginning. Support for big fundraising events such as these take time to build. Congratulations on a job well done!
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