A “shavee” participating in the 2021 St. Baldrick’s fundraiser for children’s cancer research. The 2022 event is just one day away, and donations can be submitted at stbaldricks.org/events/norwich2022. (Submitted photo)

NORWICH — The 2022 Norwich St. Baldrick’s event is nearly here. The virtual event will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, and can be streamed live on the St. Baldrick’s - Norwich, NY Facebook page.

The annual fundraiser strives to raise money for children’s cancer research that can help develop treatment for the 300,000 kids diagnosed with cancer each year, according to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation website, stbaldricks.org. Participants in the fundraiser gather donations, and some even shave their heads in solidarity.

“The organization itself, it runs purely on donations, people shaving their heads, standing in solidarity with the children that lose their hair due to treatment. So people shave their heads, raise money, and all the proceeds go to St. Baldrick’s,” said Event Organizer Jamie Burchill.

In Norwich, 38 people have signed up to help raise money, and 28 of them signed up as “shavees” to lop off their locks this Saturday.

Local technology whiz Matt Genny will be assisting with the virtual portion of the event, patching in participants shaving from their homes as well as live streaming some shavees and committee members gathered at the Blarney Stone Pub.

“We have a time for each person, they know what time they need to be ready and on camera, and then we stream that live,” said Burchill. “As a committee, this will be the second year doing this. We’ll come together where we’ll also have Matt to do the technology piece, and we might have a couple shavees right there in the committee that’ll shave their heads on camera. We also have an emcee running the event, so he keeps the energy up there and keeps people engaged.”

Burchill has even put her name down as a shavee, to ring in her first year organizing the Norwich event. She also set the event’s fundraising goal just a little bit higher than last year.

“Because last year’s was 30 [thousand dollars], it’s my first year, I put it at 31 [thousand dollars]. But of course I want to blow that out of the water,” she said.

Not only has she blown it out of the water, this year’s fundraiser has even surpassed last year’s total donations, marking 2022 as the Norwich St. Baldrick’s best year yet. So far $42,825 has been raised, beating out the 2021 record of $38,315.

Donations can be made at stbaldricks.org/events/norwich2022. Contributors have the option of donating to the event as a whole, a team, or an individual. The 2022 fundraiser has seven teams in total, including Team Maerz, Team Bruce, Team Tyler, Norwich PD, Team Wentworth, Tech Team, and NYCM Insurance.