Kid trades blue hair for bald at Patchogue St. Baldrick's event

It wasn’t enough for Yaphank’s Declan Lukowski, 12, to outraise everyone at the St. Baldrick’s Foundation event held on March 3 at Fulton’s Gate Irish Pub in Patchogue.

He did it with style.

He bested his previous personal record by raising more than $2,500 — with help from his mother, Kerri, who reached out to her friends on Facebook. She let him dye his hair blue a month before the event to add a fun twist to a very serious issue.

“My grandmother died from cancer, and I wanted to do something to help end cancer, and St. Baldrick’s seemed like it would be a good thing to do because I knew it would help a lot of people,” said Declan, who added that an aunt was also recently diagnosed with cancer.

Fulton’s Gate co-owner James Gilroy said the bar has hosted the event three years in a row, and has no plans on stopping. The good-natured gathering encourages participants to solicit sponsors and pledge to shave their heads, with all the proceeds benefiting children’s cancer research.

Many participants have some personal connection to the disease. Matt Labriola, of Ronkonkoma, who had his head shaved for St. Baldrick’s two years ago, decided to lose his lion’s-like mane again after a co-worker’s child was diagnosed with cancer.

Sheaugh Costello, 25, approached the barber’s chair with thick red locks. As soon as her foot-and-a-half braid was snipped off, she shoved it into a paper bag with later plans to donate it to one of the organizations that makes wigs for people who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments. Then she had the rest of her head shaved.

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“I’m surrounded by cancer,” Costello said, noting that she has several relatives diagnosed with the disease.

“I thought the dramatic effect of shaving my head would get more people to donate money,” said Costello, who on a lighter note later added, “I wore makeup today so that when I have no hair left people can still tell that I’m a girl.”