Fourteen students and teachers took part in the annual Oak Bay High head shave fundraiser for Cops for Cancer’s Tour de Rock on Wednesday.
It is a fraction of the students who usually would have shaved their heads. As a result, it was a quiet gym that, in a normal year, would have been buzzing with teenage emotion. Instead, there were only about 24 people in the gym.
Granted, it will be tough to match last the $76,000 Oak Bay High raised for Tour de Rock but there is hope that this year’s fundraiser will go better than some think, said John Horwood.
Twins Chris and John Horwood are leading the fundraising and were among the students to have their heads shaved.
This years head shave was missing the mass school wide assembly and electric energy. But these folks and the other who shaved/cut their hair today are still ROCK STARS to me. @OBpulse @sd61schools @BCPVPA @TourdeRock #ForTheKids #ProudPrincipal pic.twitter.com/4FSkYa1yU0
— Tom Aerts (@TomAerts61) September 30, 2020
“It won’t be the same but we are doing well considering the circumstances,” John said.
READ ALSO: Oak Bay High raise more than $76,000 for Tour de Rock
“This year’s head-shave [was] definitely not what we have had in years past,” said teacher Koji Zolbrod. “The main thing is we kept the tradition. The Tour de Rock head shave lives on.”
Music teachers Nathan Jacklin and Jeff Weaver, who lead the Oak Bay High band, also left without their hair.
“It’s been about 20 years since I shaved my head for Tour de Rock,” Weaver said. “We have a student at the school who is fighting lung cancer and that’s why I did it again this year.”
It was the first head shave for Jacklin, who is in his fourth year at Oak Bay.
Jacklin’s wife, also a music teacher in the district, is awaiting the birth of their second child.
Mid-haircut and with only a patch on the back of his head, Jacklin quipped “If she calls now [because the baby is coming] I’m not leaving until my hair cut is done.”
The Tour de Rock annual campaign is a different affair this year for the riders and also for the fundraisers.
Oak Bay High will host a group of Tour de Rock alumni riders Friday morning for a socially distanced event outside.
Oak Bay High’s final number of money raised for Cops for Cancer will be announced then.
