I’ll See Your Hair, And Raise You A Book

I’ve had a couple of harmonic convergences in the last few months.

Last year I toyed with the idea of shaving my head. I’ve wanted to do it for quite a while—just for fun cuz I’ve never done it before—but the timing never quite worked out. There was always a family wedding (with photos!) or conference season (with photos!) getting in the way. Since I’d never done it before, I had no idea if it would be so ugly that I’d scare children and the elderly. So, timing was important to me.

Another thing getting in my way was the annual fundraising party I throw to raise money to fill backpacks with emergency necessities for foster kids suddenly removed from their homes. I’d been procrastinating setting a date because I had some events up in the air and the Backpack Party date requires finesse. I like to give people enough time to take advantage of back-to-school sales to buy clothes and backpacks, so I can’t do it too early in June or too late in August or when everyone is on vacation in July. Complicated!

Seemingly unrelated—but stick with me here—is that in February, an independent bookstore Books Are Awesome opened in my town, a glorious, glorious occasion as we haven’t had one here in twenty years. Finally, I’ll be able to send my readers to a dedicated indie store to buy signed copies of my books! I’ll have a local place for book launches! I’ll have a bookstore 1.38 miles from my house! O frabjous day!

(Books Are Awesome is abbreviated to BAA, so their logo is an adorable cartoon sheep. Definitely my kind of place!)

But then in March, the whole world shut down. No conferences. No Backpack Party. And potentially no bookstore.

Using the full force of my little grey cells, I tried to figure out how to help the foster kids and Books Are Awesome … and myself, if I’m being totes honest. It would break my heart to get a bookstore yanked from my little grubbies when it took so long to get one here.

One of the things we put in each backpack for the foster kids (along with new pjs, a couple of new outfits for school, a sweatshirt, toiletries, and a small stuffed animal) is a new book. But how could I get people to buy books specifically from Books Are Awesome for my foster kids project?

And then it came to me.

I’ll shave my head!

A shearing for BAA, if you will.

People would pay to see the aftermath of that, right? Then I could turn around and use the money to buy books for the backpacks from Books Are Awesome.

So that’s the plan, folks … if you want to see what Bald Becky looks like, all you have to do is donate to the Backpack Party GoFundMe page. In return, I’ll send you pics from all angles of my knobby head, perhaps even getting my stylist to create artistic and fun shapes as she goes shorter and shorter and …. gulp …. shorter. Maybe you’ll see something fabutastic like a Reverse Mohawk, or the rarely seen Three-Quarters Head of Hair.

Just like with the Wells Fargo wagon, it could be anything!

Click here to donate!

Any amount is welcome, but please be as generous as you can. Perhaps I’ll have a sliding scale … the bigger the donation, the more photos you’ll get of this potentially disastrous—and definitely ridiculous—event!

My appointment is tentatively set for Monday May 4th , which seems like it should be okay, but these days you can’t be too sure, eh? Regardless, the sooner you donate, the sooner you’ll see photos.

I promise not to be visible in public for at least a couple of months, which, at the rate my hair grows, might be enough to be back to normal. Rest assured, nobody will get to see my glorious noggin without paying.

So … who’s ready to help foster kids and a brand-spankin-new indie bookstore as well as have a hearty laugh at my expense??

10 thoughts on “I’ll See Your Hair, And Raise You A Book”

  1. Awesome Becky!! I can’t wait to see your scalp. What a wonderful cause too.

    I will say that a shaved head is amazing, but be ready for “the looks”. When I shaved, people looked at me with pity (“Poor girl has cancer”) or with a query (“Is she a lesbian?”). Of course, most just ignored me. haha.

    I’m excited to see your head!! My donation is on it’s way.

  2. While I will miss the backpack fundraising party this year I am so proud of you for this. And thank you for supporting our new independent bookstore here. Let me know how else I can help.

  3. I have some new children’s mystery books, gently read to donate. What’s the address to send books. Not a published writer, yet, but I read them by the dozens and would like to share some with your great effort, Becky!!

    1. Oh, Beth, that’s so kind, but I can’t take them. Not only is this to help foster kids, it’s also to help my local bookstore, so I’m ordering everything through them. Plus, I think we’ll probably have to drop ship the books so I don’t think I’ll get to deliver anything due to social distancing.

  4. Tracy X Hartman

    Well, I did shave my head years ago. Actually, I let my daughter have the honors. She was a pre-teen then. She/ we had a blast! As for the first commenter, I did get the Cancer/ Lesbian looks too. I AM a lesbian! LOL. But I prefer “gay woman” since (to me) lesbian sounds like a disease. Anyhoo- it was my wife who went through cancer. In the end, it turned out to be 6 times. Lost her three years ago this past January. I’ll never forget the shaving of my head! She came home, and I was calmly sitting at the kitchen table with my favorite cousin on speakerphone b/c she was privy to my idea. She wanted to hear Kathy’s reaction live- Kathy said, “What the f_____ did you do??!!” LOL. That was the best! Not for the best reason, but the best reaction. I can’t go to what my Mom said, but I’ll tell you that I probably still have bruises in some places! I’ll click to donate even though this post was a year ago. I hope it will help both causes.

  5. Tracy X Hartman

    Nope, it says donations paused, that I should reach out to you and have you sign in to the fundraiser. Just in case you didn’t know.

    1. Tracy … that must have been a huge surprise for her! I can’t imagine what my husband would have done if I’d surprised him like that.

      I haven’t decided how to run the fundraiser this year. I don’t think we’ll be ready this summer for an in-person gathering, so I’m pondering. The GoFundMe will be opened back up when I make a decision.

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