Kicking off the event will be a live auction – highest bid earns shaving rights to the heads of two VIPs.
Dakota Gasification Company - March 16, 2009
$65,000 and growing for childhood cancer research and fellowships
WHAT: Official St. Baldrick’s Foundation event – Basin Electric’s second Annual St. Baldrick’s event. More than 140 volunteers are shaving their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research and fellowships
WHEN: Tomorrow (March 17, 2009) 2 p.m. CDT – Official Basin Electric event
WHERE: Basin Electric Headquarters, Boardroom (Tandem events will take place at respective facilities).
WHO: Basin Electric employees and other community members participating in the event. Families of children honorees will also be attending.
Event emcees in Bismarck: Mike Eggl, Basin Electric senior vice president of External Relations and Communications, and Ted Cash, Basin Electric supervisor of media support. Ron Harper, Basin Electric CEO and general manager, will also be speaking. Kicking off the event will be a live auction – highest bid earns shaving rights to the heads of two VIPs.
Basin Electric will be presenting a $15,000 check to the St. Baldrick’s foundation.
Medcenter One Foundation staff will speak about Amber’s Dream, a major gift campaign to redesign the hospital’s children’s wing. Basin Electric, together with community cooperatives, will be announcing a major gift to this campaign. Amber’s Dream honors Amber DesRoches, daughter of Pam and John DesRoches, who died of leukemia just a little more than a year ago. Basin Electric will be honoring Amber for the second year as part of the St. Baldrick’s event.
Last year, Basin Electric had originally hoped to get five brave people to shave their heads for the cause, and had 109 people participate. Today, more than 140 have signed up.
So far, employees and volunteer participants have raised more than $50,000; Basin Electric has pledged $15,000 toward the event above and beyond what has been raised – bringing that total to $65,000 and growing!
Basin Electric brought St. Baldrick’s to North Dakota, making North Dakota the 48th state to participate in this cause.
St. Baldrick’s is the world’s largest volunteer-driven fundraising event for childhood cancer research. Each year, thousands of volunteers shave their heads in solidarity of children with cancer, while requesting donations of support from friends and family. Since its inception in 2000, St. Baldrick’s has raised more than $50 million for the cause, shaved more than 72,000 heads in 18 countries and 48 states of the United States. Despite tremendous progress, cancer remains the #1 killer disease of children in the United States and Canada. The foundation’s mission is to raise awareness and funds to cure kids’ cancer by supporting cancer research and fellowships.
Video stories from Basin Electric’s 2008 and 2009 St. Baldrick’s events:
http://basin03.basinelectric.com/player/player.php?gallery=1&topic=4&video=206
http://basin03.basinelectric.com/player/player.php?gallery=1&topic=4&video=204
http://basin03.basinelectric.com/player/player.php?gallery=1&topic=4&video=85
http://basin03.basinelectric.com/player/player.php?gallery=1&topic=4&video=77
http://basin03.basinelectric.com/player/player.php?gallery=1&topic=4&video=79
Stories and photos from Basin Electric’s St. Baldrick’s events can be viewed at: http://www.basinelectric.com/Community/Employees_In_Action/St._Baldricks_at_Basin/index.html
Basin Electric is a consumer-owned, regional cooperative headquartered in Bismarck. It generates and transmits electricity to 125 member rural electric systems in nine states: Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. These member systems distribute electricity to about 2.6 million consumers.
Basin Electric’s generating resources include: two coal-based power plants in North Dakota – the Antelope Valley Station, Beulah, and the Leland Olds Station, Stanton; a coal-based power plant in Wyoming – the Laramie River Station, Wheatland; three peaking stations – the Spirit Mound Station, Vermillion, S.D.; the Groton Generation Station, Groton, S.D., and the Wisdom Unit 2 Station, Spencer, Iowa; nine combustion-turbine generators (natural gas) in the Gillette, Wyo., area; four wind turbines – two near Minot, N.D., and two near Chamberlain, S.D.; the energy produced from four baseload waste-heat stations owned and operated by Ormat Technologies Inc. along the Northern Border Pipeline, and the output of three wind farms owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources, Juno Beach, Fla. The wind farms are located near Wilton and Edgeley/Kulm, N.D.; the other is near Highmore, S.D. For more information, go to www.basinelectric.com.
