Brave The Shave

Such a cool event.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Brave The Shave. Since then, Eli, Lehr and Aunt Megan signed up to shave their heads as a way to raise funds for childhood cancer research. Then a friend of ours, Owen, (who is only 8 years old, by the way), signed up to do the same. Between Owen and the other boy who started this off (Griffin), we were so humbled to have kids outside of our family want to participate in Ruby's name.

And then my parents caught wind of it and shared the story with my grandmother. She asked if she could participate.

You heard me: Ruby's GREAT GRANDMOTHER wanted to shave her head in honor of Ruby.

GG doesn't live near us, so she shaved and had the hairdresser take a photo. She even raised funds to contribute! Combined, Team Ruby raised $2,150 before the day of the event. This included some cash that kids brought to Eli at church. Already, so exciting.

Then the day of the event, we got a few texts and emails from friends that were going to try to stop by and see the shaving happen. We arrived at 2PM and things started immediately. I was able to photograph the event, so that gave me a good front seat to the shaving action. But the stuff happening in the crowd (we were on the outside patio) and in the bar was so cool too. Maddux and some other volunteers went around with buckets asking for donations. And of course they got them. They also got some patrons to shave on the spot! A few random guys, two firefighters, and a handful of boys hopped in the chair last minute.

Ruby had a BLAST seeing friends and family there, and once she saw the first guy get his head shaved, she started walking around to everyone pointing to her head and then pointing to theirs (as if to say, "You're next?".) I still can't believe the amount of friends that showed up to support...so so cool.

Eli and Lehr shaved, then Aunt Megan shaved (she went all of the way to the scalp - no messing around!), then some friends from church (father and son) shaved on the spot, then Owen and Griffin shaved. And then Eli's best friend, Drew, asked if he could. This guy showed up to support Eli inbetween his busy weekend activities, and has never had a haircut short enough to even be called 'short'. But there he was, shaving his head "because Ruby asked me to".

There was a barbershop quartet (that sang to Ruby at some point), barbershop hairdressers that were all so awesome to volunteer their day for us (and they yucked it up with Ruby too), another boy battling cancer with his dad who got shaved, and enough warm fuzzies to last a long time. People are good. Community is good.