One thing many might not know about the Philadelphia insurancecommunity is its ongoing participation in philanthropic events. Onepopular event, for example, is the Greater Philadelphia InsuranceCommunity Day of Service, in which many insurers and brokersvolunteer for the day at organizations throughout the Philadelphiaarea.

It's easy to make a monetary donation or roll your sleeves up,but there are other ways to really make an impact:

Enter St. Baldrick's, a volunteer-driven charity in which peoplesign up as “shavees” who shave their heads as a symbol ofsolidarity with kids with cancer, who often lose their hair duringtreatment. In the process, the shavees raise much-needed funds forpediatric cancer research in the weeks leading up to the event. St.Baldrick's is committed to funding the most promising research tofind cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long, healthylives.

What started as a challenge between insurance colleagues almost15 years ago has now grown to raise of tens of millions of dollarsfor childhood cancer research. In fact, the foundation funds morein childhood cancer research grants than any organization otherthan the U.S. government.

April 9 is Philly I-Day (held at the Pennsylvania ConventionCenter in Philly), which includes speaker panels and breakoutsessions for professionals and students within the insuranceindustry. For the third year in a row, we will conclude PhillyI-Day with an event to benefit St. Baldrick's.

In preparation for last year's event, those of us whoparticipated challenged each other daily in the efforts to raise asmuch money as possible. When the final donations were calculated,we had collected more than $60,000, surpassing our goal of $50,000,and blowing the prior year's fundraising total out of the waterwhile creating a fun competition in the process.

Following in last year's footsteps, the 2014 St. Baldrick'sI-Day committee has encouraged friendly challenges among members ofthe Philadelphia area insurance industry and local universities andwe already have an extensive group of shavees who have signed up tohelp raise our current goal of $75,000.

Throughout the shavee recruitment process, some people questionthe idea of shaving their heads while working in a professionalenvironment. I think they would be surprised at how much supportand admiration they would receive from their peers in theindustry.

Last year, I shaved my head at the I-Day event in memory of mymother who passed away from cancer over five and-a-half years ago.For my mother, losing her hair signified loss and sadness. For me,shaving my head meant honoring her life and accomplishments, whileremembering her strength and courage.

I was amazed at the support I received from my peers, colleaguesand clients leading up to and at the event, which ties back to howthe insurance community is as a whole: supportive, compassionateand driven.

So there may be different reasons why we sign up to becomeshavees: friendly competition, personal experiences, a need for ahaircut…anything. However, the reason why we sign up isn't asimportant as the kids we're helping simply by sitting in a chair ona day in April that matters the most.

In the interest of the competition, I challenge anyone readingthis in the insurance community of Philadelphia to join the shaveeslisted below to help us exceed our goal for the 2014 Philly I-DaySt. Baldrick's event:

Steve Larzelere – AIG

Kevin Haas – AIG

A.J. Weiner – AON

Barry Weiner – AON

Justin Williams – Aramark

Patrick DiNicola – CorVel

Phil Coyne – ECBM

Chris DeCesare – ECBM

Edward Hanna – Insurance Society NextGen

Lou Carboni, Jr. – Lockton

Bill Barnett – Marsh

Jean-Paul Rebillard – Marsh

Michael Pettinelli – Marsh

Jonathan Backlund – Navigators

Paul Sariego – Philadelphia Contributionship

Steve Miller – St. Josephs University

Kelly Ormsby – St. Joseph's University.

For more information, check out the website for the 2014 PhillyI-Day Event here.

AIG's Stephanie Axelrod serves as an Underwriting Specialistfor WorldSource/AIG Property Casualty. Contact her at [email protected].