This year’s fundraising for the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave will be bigger and better than ever for one Wagga duo on a mission to make a difference.
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Bianca McKenzie has participated in the charity event for the past four years, and said it almost started as a challenge.
“We’d already done another fundraiser at work called the Ugly Bartender and someone said to me ‘You won’t shave your head!’ and I said, ‘Watch me’,” Miss McKenzie said.
“That first year, I was the only one who shaved my head, so it’s been a part of the drive now to get others to join me.”
Miss McKenzie’s cousin Brad Nixon is joining the fundraising this year, shaving his head alongside her.
“This is my first year doing the World’s Greatest Shave, but I have shaved in the past for Can Assist and stuff like that,” Mr Nixon said.
“I was originally doing it by myself and set a thousand dollar limit, but then I saw Bianca was doing it and thought we may as well join together for it.”
The pair have set an end goal of $6,000 collectively, divided into $5,000 for Miss McKenzie and $1,000 for Mr Nixon.
“So far we’ve raised just short of $500 in a little over a week, and we still have about two months to go,” Miss McKenzie said.
“We’ve got a lot of events organised to raise the funds.
“In the past we’ve done family fun days, raffles, barbecues, family events, car washes and the superhero Shave the World party, and all of those sorts of things will be happening this time around too.”
Mr Nixon’s decision to join the shave this year was motivated by a personal reason.
“I’ve actually had a pretty bad cancer prognosis which is one of the big motivators for me," he said.
“I know what it’s like to go through cancer treatment and stuff like that, so I just want to help out people who are in awful situations and don’t have the help, so if raising money is something I can do to go towards getting rid of cancer one day then that’s fantastic.”
Miss McKenzie said the final fundraising event will be the head shave on March 16 at the Tolland Hotel which has been listed as a public shave venue for others wishing to join.
“We are looking for prize donations too from businesses that we can raffle off, it would be a huge help,” she said.
Miss McKenzie said she doesn’t intend on this being her last year involved in the fundraising.
“I’ll be doing it again next year depending on how quickly my hair grows, but it should be long enough by then to make for a good way to raise money,” she said.
The full list of events and times can be seen below:
Feb 2 – March 16 every saturday –
- BBQ and raffles – 1pm
Feb 10 –
- Car wash for a cure
- BBQ and family fun day
Feb 16 –
- Cream the boss – Tolland Hotel venue manager is putting herself in the firing line of cream plates
March 9 –
- Adult Superheroes Shave the World fancy dress party
- Drink specials, karaoke, best dressed prizes
- Photo booth
- 9pm till late
March 10 –
- Kids Superhero Shave the World fancy dress party
- Best dressed prizes, entertainment, jumping castle
- 12-3pm
March 16 –
- Shave day
- Family entertainment
- BBQ and raffle
- Crazy hair stalls, hair show and photo booth
- Professional hairdressers
- Photographer
Events will be held at the Tolland Hotel and all proceeds go to the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave.