St. Patrick’s Day is much more to me than the color green, lots of drinking, eating corn beef and cabbage, and being Irish. Being from Long Island, New York, I learned to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day will all of these things, but also with something more meaningful. With its roots in Northport, New York, my hometown, St. Baldrick’s Foundation was developed to raise funds for childhood cancer with participants who shave their heads for donations to the cause.

This foundation is so special to me because I have had the advantage of knowing the man behind the whole vision of the operation. He happens to be one of my dad’s good friends and I have him to thank for allowing me to get involved for so many years. Tim Kenny, along with his colleagues John Bender and Enda McDonnell, were sitting in his backyard with a desire to turn their earnings into a business to give back to the community. All three, as Irishmen through and through, created this idea to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in more ways than one. They wanted to turn a holiday that was special to them into a foundation that could change lives. Completely reliant on and driven by volunteers and their efforts, St. Baldrick’s Foundation holds events all throughout the month of March to improve research on and the lives of children diagnosed with cancer.

St. Baldrick’s extends a great number of opportunities for individuals to get involved and volunteer within the foundation. There are options that range from being a shavee to donating to the organization and even to starting or working at an event. In addition to this, St. Baldrick’s has extensive connections with corporate partners, international partners, and non-profit partners that contribute funds and efforts to the cause of conquering childhood cancer. With all of these contributions, St. Baldrick’s has been able to issue countless grants that have amounted to over $178 million to fund research for a cure for childhood cancers. This amount is the second highest funding from a single organization, other than the endowments from the United States government. Without these generous grants, the research priorities that are taking root would not be nearly as possible.

Since beginning in 1999, St. Baldrick’s has made tremendous strides in their efforts and goals. By 2012, the volunteers within the St. Baldrick’s Foundation raised more than $30 million from participants and their donations. With this, St. Baldrick’s has raised over $100 million in childhood cancer research from 2005 until this point in time, which is an immense achievement in research for childhood cancer.

With each event and each year, there is an immense amount of camaraderie, support, and excitement that is shared by everyone who is present. Each individual is there for the same reason and they are all overjoyed by fighting for a worthwhile cause. The successes in past years just give St. Baldrick’s all the more reason to keep going and to ensure ways for children to keep fighting through the support of so many people. St. Baldrick’s Foundation secures hope in those children and their families. They have a huge support system striving and working for a common goal: to find the funds to fight childhood cancer and to help these kids live full lives. St. Patrick’s Day should be more than what we know it to be and what we envision it as. It should be something not so focused on food and being Irish, but on St. Baldrick’s Foundation.