It’s been a long run for Tammy MacDonald, head organizer behind the increasingly popular Hair Massacure event, but now it’s time to pass the torch on to those that are more capable to continue to keep it alive and thriving.
“It’s too much,” she admitted with a sigh. “It’s too big.”
After more than a decade, the Morinville woman announced late last week that she is stepping down from the event’s leadership and giving it to the charities that it supports. They have more staff and more resources to handle things, she said.
The Hair Massacure is an annual fundraising event that invites people to raise pledges by having their hair dyed a fluorescent pink. On (or close to) Valentine’s Day, participants can have their heads shaved in a massive show of collective solidarity with cancer patients who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy or radiation treatments.
Since its inception, it has grown from a small handful of supporters raising a few hundred dollars to now hundreds and thousands of enthusiastic participants and volunteers. This year, nearly $1.5 million was brought in. All proceeds were divided up among three charities: the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Northern Alberta, and the Ronald McDonald House of Northern Alberta.
MacDonald said that she has received many calls and comments of thanks and support from those who have been involved in one way or another with the event. This wasn’t a decision that she came to lightly, even though she was responsible for every last detail of the colossal effort.
“Two years ago, I had seriously thought of leaving. It was too much then,” she said, explaining that she never hesitated to continue to push for greater growth as new cities came on board. “I almost destroyed myself in the process. Now, we’re infiltrated throughout the province. In the middle of January [this year] I knew it was time to go.”
She – along with the event’s founder, Gordon MacDonald – will still remain involved in advisory roles. The event still belongs to the family, she said, it’s just the management that’s changing hands.
By no means should this indicate that she is riding off into the sunset. For her part, Tammy said that she has always wanted to be a writer and now she is turning the experiences into a book about the Massacure. She hopes to finish a manuscript and find a publisher by the end of the year.
The next Hair Massacure will take place Friday, Feb. 14 at the Ice Palace in West Edmonton Mall.
Learn more at www.hairmassacure.com.
