Some area residents and others came together recently to donate money, lose some hair and do what they considered their part to help fight against childhood cancer, all at the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser hosted by the Franklin Park Fire Department.
St. Baldrick’s is an international nonprofit organization that helps fund research on childhood cancers. The Franklin Park Fire Department has been hosting an annual fundraiser for the cause for nearly 20 years, organizers explained. The event, held at North Park on April 5 this year, includes honoring local kids with cancer, getting a head-shaving, and also a silent auction, raffles, food and drinks.
The Franklin Park Fire Department hosted its annual St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser for childhood cancer research April 5, 2024 at North Park in Franklin Park. (Jesse Wright/Pioneer Press)
Stephen Foltin, a longtime fundraiser for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which raises funds for childhood cancer research, was himself diagnosed with bone cancer last fall. In addition to raising money again, Foltin was honored at the April 5, 2024 fundraiser hosted by the Franklin Park Fire Department at North Park in Franklin Park. (Jesse Wright/Pioneer Press)
Scott Laconti, the lead organizer with the fire department, said this St. Baldrick’s fundraiser is one of the biggest in the state and draws the whole community together.
“We’re a tight-knit community,” Laconti said. “The people here, they might not even know anyone with cancer, but it’s always a big fundraiser.”
Fundraising teams add donations to the money-raising efforts.
Stephen Foltin was one of the local kids with cancer honored, and he also brought in the largest donation of the year. Foltin said he first got involved with the charity a decade ago, years before he got cancer.
Last fall, Foltin got diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, and has since had part of his leg amputated. He also lost his hair due to treatment. Foltin said he had been shaving his head and raising money for cancer for years. But ahead of his own diagnosis, he had pain in his leg that wouldn’t go away. Doctors ordered a biopsy, and Foltin recalled the shock and horror of the possibility that he might have a childhood cancer diagnosis.
“My mind started to go nuts,” Foltin told fundraiser attendees. “All I could think was, ‘what if it’s cancer.’”
It was.
“It was hard for me and I balled my eyes out. I cried a whole ocean,” he said.
Yet, from there, he fought hard to get healthy and he fought harder for the charity he’d worked to support over the last decade, he said.
“Over this experience, since October, I have grown as a person and not just in the way of getting taller and losing a leg, but I have grown mentally because when you’re sitting in a hospital room for five days and can’t go anywhere, your mind goes everywhere,” Foltin said.
Foltin’s fundraising team managed to bring in nearly $20,000 in donations for St. Baldrick’s.
One local father said this was his first year attending. He and his daughter only wanted something fun to do on a Friday night, so they decided to come out and participate in the raffle.
“I’m always working, but today I had a day off and I wanted to do something, so I thought I’d come out and help the kids,” said Otto Pisabaj, who attended the Franklin Park fundraiser with his daughter, Alyssa. “It’s for a good cause.”
Some of the money raised as part of the national effort is likely to stay in local communities, as St. Baldrick’s funds research in the Chicago area. Geoff Foltin, Stephen’s father, said one of his son’s nurses was trained with funds raised through St. Baldrick’s.
“Stephen started (fundraising) in 2015 with his friend Dave and little did he know one day he’d be one of the honored kids,” Geoff Foltin said.
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.
