Beginning this weekend, prepare to see a few bald heads around campus.

On Saturday, Dec. 8, the brothers of NYU’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, along with their family and friends, will gather at Amity Hall in the East Village to shave their heads to raise money for cancer research.

The fundraising event, founded by three alumni from Pi Kappa Alpha’s NYU chapter, was established in April 2011. After the inaugural event’s major success, the fundraiser has become an annual tradition for the fraternity. This year, the event will be held in the fall for the first time to complement the fraternity’s participation in Relay for Life in the spring.

Planning for this year’s event began two months ago when the brothers of the fraternity were asked to reach out to family, friends and employers to seek donations for the cause. One hundred percent of the money collected will be donated to St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a charity committed to funding research to cure childhood cancer.

CAS senior Dan Connelly, president of Pi Kappa Alpha, saw the importance of raising money for a cause that would hit home for many brothers of the fraternity.

“We couldn’t think of a better focus than to show solidarity with children who are battling this disease, and the St. Baldrick’s organization is a great facilitator of that cause,” Connelly said. “So many of our brothers have been personally touched by [cancer], including some of us who have had parents or younger siblings afflicted by it.”

Tisch junior Kiran Krishna, external vice president of Pi Kappa Alpha, will have his head shaved this Saturday.

“I have been working very closely with St. Baldrick’s since the summer,” Krishna said. “[They] have done incredible things for children with cancer, and I am in full support of their research. This has propelled me to become more and more zealous about shaving my head.”

At this point, the fraternity has raised about $12,600 in donations. Connelly expects to surpass their current goal of $15,000 on the actual day of the event.

“This year we’ve been planning the event all semester and have reached out to the NYU community as a whole to solicit donations,” Connelly said. “Additionally, rather than only have brothers who are shaving their head raise money, we have asked [all brothers] to get involved in order to reach our goal.”

The fundraising event will take place this Saturday, Dec. 8 beginning at 4 p.m. at Amity Hall, 80 W. 3rd St.

Alyssa Noud is a staff writer. Email her at [email protected].