BRONZEVILLE — Danny McGuire walked into De La Salle’s gymnasium a long-haired literature teacher with locks hanging past his shoulders.
Then he sat on a folding chair next to a barber who tied his hair into a ponytail — and chopped it off.
McGuire was one of more than 50 teachers and students at De La Salle Institute Friday morning who shaved their heads to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a California-based charity that drummed up $36.9 million for childhood cancer research last year.
“It’s good to be healthy, and it’s good to help others who are not,” said Tom Dufficy, a religion teacher who helps organize the annual St. Baldrick’s event at the South Side school. “It’s a good way for our young men to step out of their comfort zone and be a beacon of hope.”
He stomped around the gym in combat boots and a kilt, unleashing barbaric yells and throwing his fists in the air to set the vibe among the student body.
Students laughed and hollered. Others jeered and joked.
“He’s got longer hair than his wife,” one student yelled.
That wouldn’t be true for long.
Before sitting in the barber’s chair, McGuire took the microphone.
“Not often do you get to change the world,” said McGuire, who recently lost both his parents to dementia and kidney failure. “The cause is true.”
McGuire urged students to dig in their pockets to donate a buck — even if they’d have to pass on cookies and ice cream bars at lunch that day.
Students raised their dollars in the air and St. Baldrick’s volunteers collected them in green St. Paddy’s Day hats.
With outside pledges this year, De La Salle raised more than $12,000 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
Diane Brown, De La Salle’s interim principal, said the student body’s enthusiasm about the St. Baldrick’s campaign is in line with the school’s mission of faith, service and community.
“Giving up ourselves and helping others,” she said. “What you saw here today is what happens at our school every day.”
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