Mark Gearan to be official verifier when close to 100 people get their heads shaved in one hour to snag the Guinness Book of Records record for head shaving for Geneva’s annual Relay for Life cancer society fund-raiser
For 100, it's off with their hair
By Matthew Daneman
Staff Writer
(June 17, 2004) — GENEVA — The proud residents of Selinsgrove, Pa., can claim the world’s longest banana split (more than four miles long, made in 1988).
Rory Blackwell of Starcross, England, played 400 separate drums in 16.2 seconds in 1995, earning the title of the world’s fastest drummer.
And Geneva hopes to snag world-class bragging rights Friday evening when close to 100 people get their heads shaved in one hour to snag the Guinness Book of Records record for head shaving and to raise awareness and money for the American Cancer Society.
The head shaving is to be done in conjunction with Geneva’s annual Relay for Life cancer society fund-raiser.
About 100 area residents, from elementary school students to senior citizens, have volunteered their follicles, while 25 hairstylists and barbers have volunteered their time and clippers, said Arlene Eddington, chairwoman of Geneva’s Relay for Life.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges President Mark Gearan and retired North Street School Principal Thomas Scherer will be the official verifiers of the event.
According to Hobart and William Smith, the Guinness record for mass hair cuttings in one hour is 56, held by a group of Australians.
The Relay for Life will feature an estimated 1,000 walkers going from 6 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday on the Hobart and William Smith campus.
The idea of a mass head cutting grew out of last year’s Relay for Life, Eddington said, when she shaved her own head to raise money as well as draw attention to the cause.
”A lot of people said, ‘Oh, what a great idea.’ Then a friend of mine came up and said we should try to set a record, and it took off from there,” said Eddington, a Geneva elementary-school teacher.
Her father died of liver cancer and her sister is a cancer survivor.
”My hair was down to my shoulders last year,” said Eddington, who plans to have her head shaved again Friday.
”(But) people who have cancer lose their hair all the time. Now that I have it cut, I actually love it and enjoy it. It’s been a lot of fun. But it was a weird sensation.”
MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com
