BY ANDREAS YILMA
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
NAUGATUCK — One former decade-long Naugatuck resident is doing what she can to help fight back against cancer.
Janelle Caban, who has lived in the borough for 10 years and graduated Naugatuck High School in 2005 but now lives in Wallingford, is organizing a fundraiser to fight against childhood cancer through her business Color Bar Salon in Milldale.
The fundraiser, Let’s Get Buzzed, will take place right next door to Caban’s business at Blackstone Pub, 1678 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. The event will include raffles, prizes, music and people getting their hair or beards shaved off.
All of the proceeds will go to St. Baldrick’s Foundation to help fight against childhood cancer.
Caban said it’s been in her heart to do something like this and her business has had a lot of clients with cancer.
“I just feel in general everyone knows someone with cancer. One of the clients was a child who had cancer,” Caban said.
The fundraiser will also include a speech from Dr. Prasanna Ananth, a pediatric oncologist at Yale New Haven Health.
Caban said about 20 businesses have donated merchandise and gift certificates that will be raffled.
At least 20 people are shaving their heads including two men who are shaving their beards.
Each participant has been raising money where some of them have raised over $1,000.
The goal for the fundraiser was $3000 but it has instead reached over $4,600, Caban said.
Caban said she has family and friends that she personally knows who has cancer and listens to the stories of her hair salon’s clients
“You see them sort of debilitating before their eyes,” Caban said. “You see their stress. This could be that one thing that can move the needle for research or whatever they use the money for.”
Caban said she chose to donate to St. Baldrick’s Foundation after getting familiarized with them and working with them in past donations when she was the person cutting the hair versus organizing the event now. It’s a foundation people can trust, she added.
People who wish to donate toward the fundraiser or nonprofit organization either online through the website stbaldricks.org/events/Blackstone or by sending any checks to St. Baldrick’s Foundation, 1333 South Mayflower Ave., Suite 400, Monrovia, CA 91016
