Today Is The Start Of The HEADstrong Foundation's Lax Stache Madness. So Grow Those Muzzies Out For A Great Cause
Anybody who is in the lacrosse community knows of HEADstrong at this point. In case you don’t, I’ll try my best to explain starting with the fact that it’s an incredible organization that I couldn’t be prouder of. Nick Colleluori grew up one Delco town over from me in Ridley. He was a stud football player and a stud lacrosse player and ended up getting himself a scholarship to play lacrosse at Hofstra. Unfortunately during his time at Hofstra, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. A kid having the time of his life, healthy as could be playing the sport he loves at the college level, and then he gets that news dumped on him. You’d think it would be pretty devastating but what Nick was able to do after his diagnosis was create a Foundation that he knew wasn’t going to be able to help him personally, but ultimately has ended up helping over 14,000 cancer patients so far and has raised $10 million to this date for cancer patients and families in need. Nick passed away in 2006. He didn’t have the same resources that some patients have today thanks to him and his family’s efforts.
It’s been close to 12 years now since Nick passed and I don’t think anybody but him could have envisioned how big HEADstrong would have blown up at this point and how much tremendous work they’re doing. Like I said, they’ve raised $10 million for families in need. They have club lacrosse teams, they have fundraisers, they’ve bought a house in the Philly area that provides free lodging and support for families seeking cancer care in Philadelphia. Credit to the Colleluori family for keeping his vision alive and taking it this far. And one of the biggest ways they keep Nick’s vision alive is through Lax Stache Madness.
Very much the same idea as your classic Movember campaign, only this goes from October 19 – November 28, but it’s mostly intended for college teams and athletes to grow out their mustaches and set up donation pages as a team. But obviously cancer is something that impacts all of our lives in one way or another so anybody can join in to let the mustache go for the next 6 weeks and help raise money for an incredible cause. So like years past, I’ll be checking in every week with an update on my stache and hopefully some of you decide to join and send in yours as well.
Click Here To Donate To The Lax Stache Madness Campaign
And while we’re on the subject, I just want to give a quick shoutout to my good buddy Joey Sankey. Again–if you’re in the lacrosse world, chances are you’ve heard his name a time or two before. Absolute stud at UNC. Absolute stud in the MLL. Has been doing great work with his own youth club program and clinics. Unfortunatley, Joey was just recently diagnosed with testicular cancer a few weeks ago.
Obviously I feel terrible for Joe that he has to battle this now. But I feel even worse for the cancer because he’s a tough son of a bitch who is going to kick the ever living shit out of that disease. So if anybody is interested, keep a look out for some donation links for the Movember Foundation soon.