Family, friends shaving heads tonight for cancer research

Bald is bad ass: Three donors get their heads shaved as a crowd gathers in front of Nando’s Peri-Peri in downtown Oak Park in support of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and the March for Science on April 21. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Close shave for a good cause: Lee Watts sit to have her head shaved during the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser outside Nando’s Peri-Peri restaurant in downtown Oak Park on April 21. St. Baldrick’s is a charity that raises funds for pediatric cancer research, and people who had their heads shaved solicited sponsors to contribute to the cause. The restaurant also agreed to contribute 40 percent of its sales from 4 to 11 p.m. on April 21 to the charity. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Close shave for a good cause: Mike Appleby sit to have his head shaved during the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Close shave for a good cause: Rowen Glusman sit to have her head shaved during the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Kealan Dublin gets his head shaved during the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

A crowd gathered in front of Nando’s Peri-Peri in downtown Oak Park to watch people get their head shaved in support of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and the March for Science on Friday April 21. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

When Oak Parker Amy Parakkat’s daughter asked to attend the March for Science in downtown Chicago this weekend, Parakkat issued a challenge to the Oak Park and River Forest High School sophomore.

“I told her I’d take her on one condition — if she found a way to make a positive impact on science,” she said.

Naturally, being a teenager, Rowen Glusman, flipped the challenge back on her mother, challenging her to join her group of friends in shaving their heads for cancer research.

“The challenge came around and bit me,” Parakkat said, laughing.

Now she and her husband, Ravi Parakkat, and Glusman of course, along with a few of her friends and a couple of other adults, are shaving their heads for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a charity that raises money to fund pediatric cancer research.

Sponsors can donate money on Glusman’s fundraising page on the St. Baldrick’s website (https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/ShaveRowen).

 The group, and anybody else who wants to join, will be shaving their heads tonight at Nando’s Peri-Peri, 1138 Lake St., from 7 to 9 p.m.

Parakkat said Nando’s also has agreed to donate 40 percent of their sales to St. Baldrick’s from 4 to 11 p.m.

“St. Baldrick’s Foundation is the premier fundraiser for pediatric cancer in the nation,” Parakkat said. “They have a good reputation for getting the money straight to research.”

CONTACT: tim@oakpark.com