Brayden Ottenbreit’s Close Cuts for Cancer is the latest event to go online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The cancer fundraiser’s in-person shave event, set for May 30, has been cancelled, as have the barbecues that lead up to the event, but there will still be close cuts. They are encouraging people to cut from home, record, take pictures, and raise money to fight cancer.
Leone Ottenbreit with Close Cuts for Cancer said that it was a difficult decision to take the live component out of the event, and they also considered moving it to the fall, but they decided that for the sake of community safety there was only one choice that could be made.
“It’s not worth putting anybody at risk to do this.”
Going online was inspired by someone out of Manitoba, who shaved their head online a month ago to participate. Ottenbreit said that they thought that there would be other people who want to shave their heads from home, especially as people aren’t able to go out to get a haircut right now. The idea was that having something positive and fun when people need it.
“There may be people who want to shave their head, and can have a little bit of fun with how their hair has grown out and things like that. We said, let’s just try it online, put it out to people. Don’t pressure anybody if they’re really not comfortable, but if they’re thinking about doing something and want to raise a few dollars.”
They’re encouraging people to recreate what they do on stage to have fun, but from the safety of their own homes.
But what about people without clippers? Ottenbreit is open to lending them out, especially since they have several from the annual event, but said that before they do that they’re going to have to see what it takes to properly sanitize them to see if it’s possible, and if it can't be done without maintaining safety they won't do it.
Ottenbreit believes that the barbecues will be popular when they return, especially as people will be looking for more social and support a good cause, but she said that they’re not rushing to get back on the grill, because their main concern is the health of the community.
“We just don’t want to be a part of this disease spreading, we just want to be very, very cautious.”
And being a charity that raises money for cancer, they know just how dangerous a virus can be, especially for people who are immunocompromised.
“Unfortunately, our cancer patients are very much at high risk. They are still going through treatment through all of this. A lot of services have been cut off or slowed down, but if you’re undergoing cancer treatment you don’t really have that option. We just want to make sure we’re still supporting our cancer initiatives, but that we’re doing it in the safest way possible,” said Ottenbreit.
While in-person head shaving will return when it’s safe to do so, Ottenbreit can see online shaves being a part of that as well.
“A lot of people are going to be re-implementing how they do events, and I think the online component, people are getting more comfortable with it, so I think it could be a part of our event in the future.”
Anyone planning to participate from home should contact [email protected]. From there they sign up and get pledge forms.
“We want to keep it as simple as we possibly can,” said Ottenbreit.
