The funrazor story...
The story began in the Garden City in 2003 with a man named Dean (Deano) Harrison,
well-known for his long locks.
Deano’s friends had a teenage son, Gareth, who was in Christchurch hospital receiving
treatment for leukaemia. Gareth was pretty bored at the time – it’s not much fun
for any kid to be in isolation treatment after all - so Deano decided to lend him
his Playstation for the duration of his stay in hospital.
This kind gesture was a huge hit with Gareth and after seeing the obvious pleasure
on his face, Deano couldn’t help thinking how great it would be to raise enough
money to get Playstations for all the kids undergoing cancer treatment.
Deano put his thinking cap on and came up with an ingenious idea. Two and a half
weeks later he found himself sitting in Cathedral Square preparing to have his head
full of hair shaved off in return for sponsorship. He was lined up beside Mayor
Garry Moore and a number of other assorted friends and business associates who banded
together to raise an amazing $27,000 for the Child Cancer Foundation.
All the children in treatment in Christchurch were delighted to be given their dream
Christmas present that year - a Playstation console - as well as delicious Christmas
hampers for their families. Without a doubt, Deano’s fundraising effort had been
an enormous success!
The following year, Deano decided to hold the head shave event again and this time
more people got involved. In 2005, his famous ‘Close Shave’ event was rebranded
‘funrazor’ and thanks to a successful marketing campaign, continued to get even
bigger.
Sadly, in June 2006, after a long battle with cancer, Gareth passed away. By that
stage however, funrazor had become such an icon that it was decided that the event
would continue in his memory.
funrazor went national in 2006 with 13 separate regions hosting head shave events,
along with independent funrazor initiatives organised by businesses and individuals
throughout the country.
2007 saw a total of 672 brave baldies, who showed New Zealand that they were serious
about supporting brave kids with cancer. A whopping $536,000 was raised in one day
across 19 different shave stations.
So, that’s the story of funrazor so far. Join us this year and help us continue
the success!
