By Emily Senger
Michelle Stiphout has a new do. It’s a little shorter than she may have liked, and though her buzz cut cost her eight inches of blond locks, it raised more than $2,400 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation.
Stiphout, a fourth year social sciences major, was one of 73 University of Calgary students who shaved their heads to collectively raise over $50,000 for cancer research at the fourth annual Kick-off to Cancer Month Head-shave in MacEwan Student Centre Thu., Mar. 30.
“Since my mom was diagnosed [with breast cancer] again I’ve been sitting by and letting her battle by herself and now I decided to do something,” explained Stiphout of her motivation to lose her locks. “She’s really proud of me.”
Mount Royal College, NAIT, the University of Lethbridge and Red Deer College joined in the head-shave this year for some friendly competition to see which school could raise the most money, but the U of C came out well ahead of its competitors.
“Between all the campuses we’ve raised a total of $107,000,” said U of C event co-organizer Jamie Soulodre. “U of C raised almost double the amount of anyone else. The head-shave’s been running at this school for the past four years and I think the amount raised by U of C has a lot to do with the history.”
For students who didn’t get to shave their head the last time around the U of C medical students are holding their own head-shave on Tue., Apr. 11. Email pmcantle@ucalgary.ca for more information.