This year will be Mount Carmel’s seventh participating in the St. Baldrick’s Day challenge.  Founded July 4, 1999, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers. Mount Carmel’s event will take place during Spirit Week, on March 19, 2015. Students and faculty participate in this event by pledging to shave their heads in return for donations to the cause.

Seniors Jack White, Garrett Smith, Patrick Nowacki, and faculty member Mr. Sean Sweany are among the many MC students and faculty members who plan to shave their heads and raise funds this year.

White is looking forward to participating for the fourth time, because he has been influenced in a positive way in the past. “After each St. Baldricks Day, I feel so happy, because I know that I’ve impacted someone’s life.”

But while the event has meaning for all who participate, the financial success of the day likely will ride on the efforts of senior Michael Melchiorre, who over the past 4 years has raised the most money in the entire country for the St. Baldrick’s cause. Last year his team raised $208, 751 to support the program.

While Melchiorre has been featured in both newspaper and on television stories highlighting his wonderful achievements, he takes his attention in stride, focusing instead on those who are helped. “Me and my family have been behind St. Baldricks for 4 years now, and I plan on continuing my contributions,” said Melchiorre.

Although a cure for childhood cancer is still to be found, St. Baldrick’s is a day to celebrate that hope and to raise funds to advance that cause.  Because of that hope, as Nowacki observed,  it’s also a time when “many smiles are seen.”