Big beard sacrificed for little girl

A remarkable story tonight of people in the community reaching out to help a little girl they’ve never met. And it was lead by a teacher who offered to sacrifice something very near and dear to him.

You and viewers can be judge of what this did for the teacher’s looks. But it was a lot of fun for kids at St. Joseph’s Elementary school in Hamilton. And it could help a little girl who’s very sick.

Teacher Rick Palkowski started growing his beard over a year and a-half ago, and got kind of attached to it: “You know what? I enjoy it.”

But the time came to make a sacrifice when he heard about six-year old Anya Martinez of Ancaster.

“My Name is Anya”

Anya has leukemia.

Chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant haven’t worked.

Her parents want to send her to a children’s hospital in Philadelphia for a new treatment.

They’re trying to raise more than half a million dollars since OHIP says the treatment is experimental and won’t pay for it.

Dorothy Martinez: “For me, I want her to have a normal life, as funny as that sounds, I just want her to go to school. I want her to have hair.”

Anya: “Look at me.”

Rick said: “Being a six-year-old and being around them, I’ve taught her age and seeing just the happiness they come to school with every day and knowing that she hasn’t had that same experience I sort of wanted to just give back.”

Rick got fundraising going at his school by focusing on his beard — even though he’d never met Anya or her family — and how much he could raise by shaving it off.

The shaving took only seconds, but his St. Joseph’s elementary school raised almost two thousand dollars, along with 26-hundred on his “Beard for a good cause” online site.

“It was awsome.”

Mike Martinez: “The supports been incredible. It means a lot.”

Anya’s father says his daughter is fighting the leukemia — and keeps smiling — but it keeps coming back.

Mike Martinez said: “She is a special kid. She’s destined to be somebody and so we’ve gotta try to give her all the opportunity to just kind of get through this.”

And Rick is getting over his beard separation anxiety: “It feels oddly weird.”

He says he might do this again once his beard grows back.

Anya’s father says she’s doing OK, and her spirits are good, but she’s in a lot of pain. They’re appealing the OHIP decision not to cover the new treatment but say that’s not looking great. Rick says anyone who wants to follow this up can google “Beard For a Good Cause” on share-a-gift.com