Shera Sims (r), fourth-year dental student, and a packed  lecture hall took great joy in watching Dean Michael  Reed (seated) have his head shaved by barber Joe Nastasio (l).

Josh Walker, a fourth-year dental student, readily admits that he has never been deeply involved in charity. Sure, he didn’t mind doing it, but he had never been one to step forward and lead a charitable activity. That was before he became involved with Students Take Action (STA) and volunteered last summer with a group of other STA members at Camp Quality , a specially designed summer camp devoted to the needs of children with cancer.

While volunteering at the camp, Walker was deeply touched by how the camp, its activities and its staff created a safe and fun place where kids could create happy memories to sustain them during their ongoing medical treatments. He also was impressed by Shera Sims, a friend and former president of STA, and the tremendous enthusiasm she showed for the camp.

When Walker returned to dental school for his senior year, he wanted to do “something crazy” while he still could (meaning, before he became a respected member of the community as a dentist). And because of his experiences with STA, he wanted to do something special for Camp Quality .

That’s when the idea came to him — he would raise the $600 needed to send one child to Camp Quality by getting people to pay to see him get his head shaved. To his amazement classmates not only enthusiastically pledged money to see his head shaving, other classmates volunteered to get their heads shaved, too.

A week before the event, scheduled for Friday, Sept. 14, Walker had been joined by nine other students and a faculty member in what had been aptly named the FundRAZOR. The FundRAZOR had generated so much interest (200 pledges totaling $1,600) that the organizers revised the original goal of $600 to a previously unimaginable $2,400, which would send four kids to camp. Walker was as amazed as he was overwhelmed by the support he was receiving. Gerry Barker, an STA faculty advisor and associate professor and director of the UMKC Oncology Dental Support Clinic, said, “Josh was in my office everyday to discuss the FundRAZOR. The excitement kept growing, so he had to keep adjusting his plans accordingly.”

Richard Viloria, a third-year dental  student and president of Students Take  Action, was one of a dozen volunteers  who had their heads shaved.

 Then on Tuesday, Sept. 11, something happened that the FundRAZOR volunteers nor anyone else could have ever imagined. The terrorist attacks on that day shifted the anticipation of seeing nearly a dozen people shave their heads to anguish over the tragedy that had befallen America . Like all Americans, everyone wondered how they would ever be able to laugh and feel good again. Little did the school’s head-shaving organizers know, their event would enable people to do just that.

A Great Day for the Dental School

The day for the FundRAZOR coincidentally fell on the country’s National Day of Mourning for the victims of the terrorist attacks. Immediately before the Fund-RAZOR, the School of Den­tist­ry held a memorial service in honor of the Sept. 11 tragedy. Dozens of students, staff and faculty assembled around the flags flying at half mast on the school’s first floor patio to say prayers and count blessings.

Understandably, the FundRAZOR began on a somewhat somber note in the school’s largest classroom. Shera Sims, a fourth-year dental student, had been given the now monumental task of serving as emcee for the event. Sims’ vibrant personality and passion for charity transported the roomful of head-shaving spectators to the other end of the emotional spectrum. The crowd quickly became increasingly boisterous in anticipation of witnessing the head shaving of Dean Michael Reed as well as the lopping off of locks of the lone female volunteer, Sara Vizcarra,

Miraculously, the FundRAZOR was providing people with the chance to laugh and feel good again. The room was full and the crowd was getting louder and louder as their classmates’ hair got shorter and shorter. Soon a Styrofoam takeout container was being passed around the room as a collection plate. Students, faculty and staff were emptying their pockets and opening up their checkbooks in a frenzy of generosity. At one point Sims saw Dr. Dick Brown, an assistant professor of oral surgery, rifling through the bills in his wallet. Simms ran over to him and snatched every bill he had. Dr. Brown barely flinched. Joe Nastasio, the barber from Esquire Barber Shop who volunteered to perform the head shavings, adamantly refused payment for his services, saying that it was payment enough for him to be a part of what he called one of the most wonderful things he had ever been a part of.

In all, the FundRAZOR raised $4,200 (including $1,200 during the head shavings), which will send seven kids to Camp Quality next summer. Dean Reed, who enthusiastically sacrificied his own head of hair for the cause, said, "The week of Sept. 11 tested us all. But the way we came together that Friday for the memorial service and the FundRAZOR and shared our sorrow and our joy was tremendously uplifting. It was just a great day for the Dental School ."

C.J. Hutto, section manager of Hematology/On­cology at Children’s Mercy Hospital , witnessed the excitement the FundRAZOR generated. In a letter congratulating the event, Hutto wrote, “I left feeling uplifted by the spirit of these folks and humbled by their generosity.”

Lessons in Life Beyond the Classroom

Students Take Action began in 1998 to encourage compassion and camaraderie through community service. A preeminent goal for STA, which is shared by the School of Dentistry , is to promote not only the ideal that social responsibility and engagement are important, but also the simple fact that community service can be fun. To ensure that its activities are both meaningful and fun, STA plans its projects based on suggestions from its members. And because STA is constantly offering a variety of projects, members can volunteer for events based on their individual interests and time constraints.

According to Gerry Barker, “STA helps students understand how fortunate they are in relation to the larger community. If students discover that they can make time to enjoy community service in spite of their demanding school schedules, they’ll be more likely to make time in the future when they’re practicing in their own communities.”

A few of the projects STA has adopted include:  Score 1 for Health, a charity sponsored by the NFL that performs general health check-ups in area schools; raising $1,500 for relief efforts in Kosovo; the Children’s Mercy Employee Health Fair; a Thanksgiving food drive dubbed STA Turkey Challenge; Crop Walk (Harvesters Food Bank); Festival of Sharing (dental care packages for Missourians in need); Xom Quy Ngoai Foundation fundraiser (to send medical and dental supplies to Vietnam); Fruit Filled Hands for the Holidays (assistance for the Forest Avenue shelter); Dental Care with a Heart (free dental care for clients of area social service agencies); Harvesters Food Pantry; Habitat for Humanity; and Children’s Dental Health Day.

Based on its past success, STA would like to pursue some additional goals in the future. Current STA president, Rich Viloria, a third-year dental student, says the organization hopes to become involved on a national level with similar organizations. There’s an ongoing effort with the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) to develop communications between student service groups so they can share information and ideas. Also, says Viloria, STA is strengthening its presence on the Internet with improvements to their Web site. Viloria is teamed with vice president of events Tracy Davis, vice president of communication Jennifer Adams, historian Wendy Harless, secretary Kamra Defries, treasurer Phuong Tran, dental hygienists representative Chelsie Pederson, and graduate dental hygienists representative Anna Ebert.

As proof of the maxim that one good deed deserves another, STA has been honored with several awards:  they received the national ADEA “Quest for Excellence Award; they were recognized by UMKC Student Programs as the “Best New Student Organization”; and they were awarded first place in the “school category” of participants in the 2000 Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Proving that (almost) bald is beautiful are:  (l-r) Eric Frost, 
first year D.D.S. student; Dr. Karl Breuckmann, faculty; Dean 
Michael Reed; Alex Rodriguez, fourth year; Richard Viloria, 
third year; Mike Strand, third year; Sara Vizcarra, third year; Joel 
Nichols, second year; Josh Walker, fourth year; Wade Owens, 
fourth year; Nick Vega, third year; and Matt Felts, first year.