Keene State students could donate money for charity and to make their fellow students go bald.
On Friday, Jan. 31, the KSC fraternity Alpha Sigma Phi (Alpha Sig) hosted their yearly head shave event. It took place in the Mabel Brown Room at 3:30 p.m. and was also livestreamed to the fraternity’s Instagram page.
The fraternity had been tabling for the event throughout the previous week in the student center. Students could donate money and see which fraternity brothers would be going bald.
Junior Yuri Lucena, one of Alpha Sig’s newest members, planned and organized the event this year.
“We always do this every year and I was assigned to be the new VP [vice president] of service and philanthropy,” said Lucena. “This event raises [money for] different nonprofit organizations.”
The money raised from donations would go to: Homes for our Troop;, Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network [RAINN]; Shatterproof which helps with addiction recovery and the Hazing Prevention Network and Active Minds which promotes mental health.
At the time of the event, it was announced that they had raised just over 2,000 dollars.
Lucena also spoke on the process of organizing the event.
“It’s not like if you’re a brother you have to get your head shaved. It’s not mandatory,” said Lucena. “It’s just brothers who volunteered.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to get brothers to want to shave their head,” said junior Benjamin Westbrook, an Alpha Sig member. “But it is for a good cause, so at least people will do [it for] that.”
Westbrook said that the money they received would be split and donated evenly between the five charities.
There were five Alpha Sig members and their advisor, Aaron Thompson, who volunteered to get their heads shaved. Each time there was a donation milestone, it meant one of them would be getting shaved.
“It’s one of our biggest events,” stated Westbrook. “This one probably brings in the most amount of donations.”
The event was livestreamed, but students could come watch in the Mabel Brown Room and give any final donations. Junior and Alpha Sig President Ian Carter acted as host for the event and kept up commentary and jokes to the crowd.
“I got to shave someone’s head last year, it was a lot of fun,” said junior Adam Hollis, an Alpha Sig member. “This is one of the biggest events we do of the year … We get donors, parents, students, faculty … [KSC President] Melinda Treadwell is always a very generous donor to this event.”
“It’s all for a good cause,” said senior Mykenzie Rives, president of the Panhellenic Council. “Every year they raise a lot of money, and I know they work really hard and it gets everyone really excited. So just coming in [to] support is always a good thing.”
Originally, only four members of Alpha Sig were meant to be shaved but because of some last-minute donations, all six volunteers were shaved. Westbrook, who wasn’t originally part of the lineup, surprised the crowd by also shaving his head.
“I felt like I was kind of obligated,” said Thompson. “Once I committed, I was going to do it anyway. But I think there’s going to be some people who make last-minute donations that put us over three thousand.”
Thompson continued, “It’s all for charity, so it’s for a good cause.”
Carter spoke on the process of setting up an event like their annual headshave event.
“In order to use this room for fundraising, your fundraising request needs to be approved,” said Carter. “But the college likes when we do stuff like this, so it’s really easy.”
Although the tradition had been going on for years, Carter could not say why someone decided to start shaving heads for charity.
“I think the idea is that it’s kind of a crazy event,” said Carter. “And I think it really gets people to donate.”
Orion Corbin can be contacted at
