St. Baldrick's Day--Part 3: The Pre-Shave

We already have bald people in this house and St. Baldrick's Day 2010 is still two days away.

Each year, our local St. Baldrick's volunteer committee works to do as much promotion of the event as possible. We can put free "ads" in the paper on a community page, we do news releases, and we've always tried to get on the local TV station, which didn't work until this year.

The local TV station is run by Vail Resorts and is kind of like when you go to a hotel and they always have a hotel channel. But the Vail channel is really much more broad and they do all sorts of interviews, cooking segments, they're out on the mountain, etc.

So they had requested that someone come on, talk about St. Baldrick's and pediatric cancer, and then shave heads in advance. Our volunteer leader, Cindy, asked if we would be willing to go on as a family, which of course, we were. I mean, I was willing to go at first, but as the day approached, I was regretting it. I hate being on TV. There's nothing like seeing yourself up close and personal and noticing all of your annoying mannerisms that the rest of the world is subjected to on a daily basis. But it was for a good cause and I didn't have to shave, so away we went.

First, we had to make preparations:






Eamonn sprayed Declan; Declan sprayed Eamonn. They're a good team that way. I can't stand the smell of that stuff.

I was a little worried because I realized if Eamonn and Declan were shaving on air and I was being interviewed while they were shaving, I wouldn't have any pictures of them being shaved. And that bummed me out because Declan always look so cute in the shaving process. Eamonn likes to get that old man/clown shave. It's slightly less cute, but extremely hilarious.

Enter Christine who always takes stellar St. Baldrick's pictures every year. She e-mailed me and said she would be at the TV station taking pictures. Thank you, Christine!

Here are Christine's pictures documenting our morning. It was us, the TV host, Tricia, and the two barbers, Angela and Sandy. Some of the pics are in black and white because Christine couldn't shoot with a flash so the pictures looked better in black and white.


Live from Vail, it's. . .US!


Jabbering and getting ready to shave. . .


Finn jumping around and waving at the camera. He kept looking at the monitor in the lobby. Come to think of it, so did I.


Why does he love this look so? He requests it every year!


Tricia interviews Declan mid-shave.


Eamonn getting the finishing touches.


Declan is almost finished! I want to break into singing "White Wedding" when I look at this.


Try not to be jealous, ladies!


The whole gang right after the broadcast.

But, I think what you're really waiting for is this: video footage! It's in three separate bits:







I actually have two copies of the broadcast--the YouTube ones here and then the version that was actually burned at the station from the live broadcast. Hilariously, when I watched that version, I realized that the TV8 logo was over my face the entire broadcast. It was see-thru, but yet there I was with a big 8 on my face. Nifty. On the DVD version, there's also a little piece that superimposes Declan's head back on the green screen and the weather guy is talking about Declan's hair and freckles. It's hilarious, but I can't figure out how to upload just that portion. Alas, it's a sad thing to be technologically inept.

So now, all that's left is the event itself on Saturday. It will be a long day, but a fun one, and so worth all of the effort. Thank you to everyone who has donated!