More than $15,000 was raised for a charity that helps fund pediatric cancer research during a head-shaving event Saturday in Boise.
Citywide Home Loans in Boise hosted the Shave for Superheroes event benefiting the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. The branch manager and event organizer is Tyler Porter.
“This was our biggest event so far,” Porter said. “We started doing it in 2012, and I've been doing it every two years so that my hair grows long enough, so I can also donate it to locks of love.”
Porter said he got involved with St. Baldrick's to honor his sister, who is a leukemia survivor. She was diagnosed when she was three.
“If you can save one life then it's all worth it,” he said.
Since 2012, Porter has raised more than $25,000 for the charity. He hit $25,000 in 2016, and decided he was going to retire from head shaving. Then he met the Brown family.
“Easton was diagnosed in September 2016,” said Paige Brown, Easton's mother. “He went through six months of chemo and two months of proton radiation.”
Easton was only a toddler. Hearing this story hit close to home for Porter, so he decided to come out of retirement and participate in St. Baldrick’s.
“We decided on St. Patrick's Day because last year Easton's end-of-treatment scans were on St. Patrick's Day” Paige said. “So we thought what better way to celebrate a year than to have this event and to help raise money for an amazing organization?”