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Orangeville councillor shaves head, raises $6,000 for local hospital

July 2, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Baker

Doing something a little crazy for a good cause seems to run in the family for one Orangeville councillor. 

Lisa Post made the bold move to go bald this past weekend, raising more than $6,000 by shaving her head. The money will be going directly to the oncology department at Headwaters Health Care Centre. The fundraiser was a continuation of the ‘Taking the Edge Off Cancer’ initiative, launched by the late Sean Coulter back in 2015. 

“The ‘Taking the Edge Off Cancer’ initiative was put in place specifically to raise money for the oncology expansion at Headwaters hospital. Sean had Hodgkins Lymphoma and wanted to start this initiative because he always had to receive treatment out of town,” Ms. Post said. “He felt fortunate, because he always had a good circle around him that could help get him to appointments, but he knew there were many in our community who struggled, and he wanted to do his part to help them and bring cancer care closer to home.”

Mr. Coulter ultimately lost his battle with cancer, passing away in 2017. In 2018, Headwaters unveiled its new Ambulatory Care Department, which serves as the home for a bolstered local oncology clinic. Local residents can now receive chemotherapy treatments in Orangeville, book appointments and consults with local doctors, and undergo minor oncology-related procedures in town.

With COVID-19 draining resources at the Orangeville hospital, Ms. Post felt it was vital to continue on with Sean’s vision and raise funds for the local facility. 

“The hospital needs funds more than they ever have before. With COVID-19 still impacting the world, many of the major fundraisers have been cancelled or postponed, so this is a nice way where we can step up in a safe and responsible way and give the hospital some money they need to continue, to grow and become even more of a centre point of our community,” Ms. Post said.

The head shaving took place on Sunday (June 28) at the Post family’s cottage, just outside of Caledon. Lisa’s daughter, Charley, was the one to do the honours – fitting, considering she herself has been in a similar position on more than one occasion. Back in 2016, a then ten-year-old Charley decided she wanted to shave her head to raise money as part of that year’s ‘Taking the Edge Off Cancer’ initiative. She would repeat the feat in 2017.

As the shaving commenced, Ms. Post admitted to becoming “surprisingly and unexpectedly” emotional as her thoughts started to centre around her long-time friend. 

“I was really thinking about Sean. This is something he would have loved to have been a part of. The cottage was a really special place for us – Sean was a very close family friend, so we spent a lot of time there. It was really a great spot for us to do this,” Lisa said. 

And while Sean may not have been there in person, he was certainly there in spirit. Members of Sean’s family were in attendance and brought along a small urn containing some of Sean’s ashes, which were scattered at the cottage. 

While the primary focus of the event was raising money for the hospital, Lisa also kept all of her hair, which she plans to donate to Angel Hair for Kids, an organization that specializes in creating wigs and hair systems to children who have lost their own hair, at no cost. According to the organization’s website, it typically takes between 10 and 12 donated ponytails, and $2,000 to sponsor one Angel Hair for Kids child. 

As of press time, the fundraiser has brought in $6,060. People can still donate by visiting hhcfoundation.akaraisin.com

As for Lisa, we asked if this was something she would consider ever doing again – say next year, to potentially go back-to-back like her daughter, Charley. 

“I don’t know – I did shave my head once before 15 years ago. I used to be the manager of Blockbuster in town. One of my best customers was a teacher at Centre Dufferin (District High School in Shelburne), and he organized the annual Centre Dufferin Head Shave, so I participated in that,” Lisa said. “I guess I’d probably do it again. 15 years ago I did it, maybe in another 15 years we’ll see what happens.”

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