MINDEMOYA—Young Charleigh Carrick accepted a challenge from a family friend to raise $400 and, in return, she could dye his hair green. By using social media and encouraging other local men to dye their hair green, what started out as a challenge turned into thousands of dollars being raised for the Northern Cancer Foundation.
Dad Lee Carrick explained, “It was Travis Dewar of Mindemoya who actually got this whole thing started. He and his family hold the maple syrup auction every spring, and the first litre that they harvest is auctioned off, with the funds from the auction going towards cancer research. We were at Travis’ place the night that the gentleman who won this year’s auction was announced as the winner. Travis and Charleigh (who will be 10 years old in August) were there and she was asking a lot of questions about the syrup auction, why we were doing it, how it worked and where the money raised goes. She had a purple streak in her hair, and Travis said ‘if you raise $400, I will dye my hair’.”
“From there, the whole thing snowballed,” said Mr. Carrick. “Charleigh took to social media online and she kept adding guys to the list who said they would get their hair dyed green if people donated to this cause.”
“Five of us, Kevin Moulton, Adam Smith, Kyle Watson, Travis Dewar, Ryan Prior and myself joined in,” said Mr. Carrick. “We all met at Travis’ house and our wives were there as well. We all had our hair bleached and coloured green, with Charleigh doing the touch-ups. A total of $4,100 was raised.”
