On a Wednesday in April a woman, Deidra Dwyer, was telling a few coworkers about having breast cancer and how the chemotherapy treatment was beginning to make her lose her hair. She decided to have a laugh at the disease and get a Mohawk before all her hair fell out. Her coworkers decided she didn't need to go through this alone and they would get Mohawks with her.

The idea came suddenly to see how many coworkers these men could rally together in support of Deidra and her brave walk through cancer. How many would shave their hair to a Mohawk in a gesture of love and support. Besides good will, they added a financial perk – see how much money could be raised by people wanting to see their coworkers punked out.

With a few phone calls four generous friends made pledges each of $100 per Mohawk for up to twenty Mohawks. The money would be donated to OHSU Cancer Institute dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer. That’s $2,000 for a breast cancer cure! EACH!

When word spread around work about the Hawk-A-Thon, brave men lined up outside the Hair Department where clippers shaved and fingers molded (and occasionally colored) one Mohawk after the other.  It was only the first day and twenty-four men and women (yes, women can do the Hawk-a-Thon, too) had been sheered or signed up for Mohawks.

Then the next day a generous Anonymous Angel phoned to raise the stakes –$100 per Mohawk if we add ten people!  Could we really get 30 people?  Almost immediately another squad of brave Mohawkers, including a couple follicle-challenged men who creatively flipped their Mohawks horizontally to participate (see one of them here), heeded the call.

Along the way some told their own story of how breast cancer had touched their life: A stepmother; a mother-in-law; a sister who survived it twice, each breast years apart; a dear family friend who died in the 80’s when there wasn’t as much hope as today.  The mother of the bandleader, herself a breast cancer survivor for five years, got her Mohawk right after her husband who’s also in the band. Most Mohawks were meant to be an example for how these men would be there for their own wife, daughter, mother, sister, or friend.

As people around the office were stepping up to represent their Departments in the Hawk-A-Thon, still more were busy writing checks in support of Mohawks for a Breast Cancer Cure.  By the end of the day over $12,350 had been raised for the OHSU Cancer Institute.

Word spread among Deidra’s friends, and among the friends and families of people participating in the event, that by now we are officially calling Hawk-A-Thon: Mohawks for a Breast Cancer Cure. "Hawk-A-Thon" for short.

A young man 1,500 miles away stepped up to his own Hawk-a-Thon challenge, in support of a friend’s mother, and immediately raised pledges totaling $250.  Three days after Deidra was confiding with coworkers in a kitchenette, Hawk-A-Thon: Mohawks for a Breast Cancer Cure is already helping other women.

One supporter suggested, "Having her friends go this journey with her will help as much as chemotherapy – maybe even more."  Deidra, in her own words, agrees, "MUCH more good than bad has resulted from this [breast cancer], and there is something righteous and beautiful in that."

And so began Hawk-A-Thon: Mohawks for a Breast Cancer Cure!