Holy Family U. freshman helps City of Hope find a cure

YOU WON'T find Shane White, 18, a freshman at Holy Family University in Northeast Philadelphia, giving $5 haircuts, manicures or facials today at Bucks County Technical High School to raise money for City of Hope cancer research.

But you will find him working the HopeCuts fundraiser at his Feasterville alma mater, supporting the 50 student barbers and cosmetologists trying to raise more than $10,000 for City of Hope like they did in a snowstorm last year.

White's expertise is technology, not cosmetology, so he's been networking for months to spread the word about today's $5 HopeCuts, hoping a good crowd shows up from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

All the money goes to support the famous cancer-research hospital in Los Angeles that has clinical-trial research partnerships with Thomas Jefferson University and other Philadelphia hospitals.

"My aunt, Peggy Caldwell, battled cancer for five or six years," White said. "She'd go into remission and then the cancer would come back. But she was always optimistic. She taught kids in a preschool, and she was always there for them, no matter how bad a day she was having.

"Eventually, she lost her life to cancer," White said. "I do all my volunteer work in her honor."

Harry Giordano, who has been Philadelphia's core City of Hope fundraiser for 18 years, said White is wise beyond his years.

"What's so crazy about this kid is he wasn't a cosmetology student, but he got so involved with HopeCuts last year that he got TV news to travel to Bucks County in the middle of a snowstorm, and 200 folks showed up for $5 haircuts, manicures and facials."

Giordano sighed. "I wish I'd had the chutzpah of this kid when I was his age," he said admiringly.

Giordano, whose family has owned P. and F. Giordano produce in the Italian market since 1921, said Los Angeles-based City of Hope has run trials of cancer-fighting drugs for years at Thomas Jefferson University, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Fox Chase Cancer Center.

White, Giordano said, "is our Student Ambassador of Hope."

White said that in addition to honoring his aunt, "I do it because I really love giving back to the community.

"Here at Holy Family University, I'm helping to plan an 'empty plate dinner' at a church in Northeast Philly, which will raise money to feed the homeless."

He said hundreds of Holy Family students will design and paint plates for the $20-a-person empty-plate dinner this spring.

"We'll eat dinner off the plates, and then we'll take the plates home to remind us what homeless people go through every day," White said.

He may be only 18, but White has an old, wise head on his shoulders and a caring heart.