Fifteen people received new haircuts outside a downtown bar Thursday afternoon as patrons raised more than $800 for a popular employee of the establishment who is undergoing treatment for stage 3 lymphoma.
Morgan Hill resident Bob Matts and local hairstylist Ashley Sulesky helped organize the “Buzz A Thon” outside the M & H Tavern in an effort to help raise money bartender Teresa Glover and her medical expenses.
Matts donated $10 for each customer who agreed to have their head shorn by Sulesky, who donated her time to the fundraising effort. Matts encouraged other patrons to match him, and together they raised a total of $830, which will be donated directly to the Teresa Glover Fund, Matts said.
Matts said he became “teary-eyed” reading about Glover’s plight in the news last month, and he and other Tavern patrons decided to do something for the 39-year-old mother of two who was diagnosed with lymphoma in December 2013.
“So we made an event on Facebook, and I said I would match everybody who shares it with me,” Matts said.
In addition to contributions by Matts and those who matched him, a silent donor agreed Thursday to donate $1,000 to cover expenses for another fundraiser for Glover on Saturday if longtime Tavern bartender Bob Allman agreed to shave his head. Allman – who couldn’t refuse the offer – and other residents thought up the Saturday evening fundraiser at Troy’s Bocce Ball, which will feature a DJ and full lineup of live music, to be closed out by the hit rock band SmashMouth.
Morgan Hill resident Norbert Diaz said he heard about Thursday’s fundraiser on Facebook and decided to have his seven years’ worth of long black locks shaved in honor of his cousin who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
“This is for a good cause,” Diaz said.
Mike DiRubio, one of the producers of the Saturday event, had his head shorn for Thursday’s fundraising effort. He said the haircuts are “just symbolic” but that support for friends and family suffering from cancer is a social and family obligation.
“We’ve all lost somebody to cancer,” DiRubio said. “It’s a community’s responsibility to do something for people.”
For more information about Saturday’s fundraiser or to donate go to www.teresagloverfund.com.
