The mane event: Ogunquit selectman shaves head to raise $180K to help kids with cancer

OGUNQUIT, Maine — You might not recognize Selectman Rick Dolliver the next time you see him. But do that double-take. It’ll be him.

Less of him. But him.

For more than two years, Dolliver had so much hair on his head and such a full, dark beard that you could be forgiven if you thought Hollywood had tapped him for a live-action film version of the old “Captain Caveman” cartoon from the late '70s.

During an interview on Tuesday, Dolliver offered his own take on how he has looked these last two years.

“I look like Charles Manson,” he said.

But that all changed on Wednesday, when Dolliver took a seat in his restaurant – That Place in Ogunquit on Shore Road – and had his unruly mane shaved completely from his head, to benefit the Maine Children’s Cancer Program.

The shearing capped three hours of festivities that included live and silent auctions, which were a part of Dolliver’s determination to raise $100,000 for the program.

Dolliver began his fundraising efforts a while ago with an online push that had raised more than $64,000, as of Tuesday. During his interview earlier this week, Dolliver expressed confidence that he would hit his goal by the time his last lock was snipped on Wednesday night.

“I will make sure the Maine Children’s Cancer Program gets $100,000,” he vowed on Tuesday.

Sure enough, Dolliver reported on Thursday morning that he and his fellow donors ended up raising at least $180,000.

The MCCP is the nonprofit pediatric oncology program of the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland. The center treats children diagnosed with cancer and blood donations. According to Kelley, every penny collected will go directly to children, young adults and families who are struggling with cancer, right here in Maine.

“This isn’t about me,” Dolliver said in a news release. “This is a community coming together to help these little kids who are going through something that most of us can never imagine. Together, though, we can make a difference in their lives.”

This is not the first time Dolliver has shaved his head for the kids at the MCCP. In 2013, he saw news reports of former President George H. W. Bush shaving his head in support of and in solidarity with a 2-year-old boy who had cancer and had lost his hair as a result of treatments. The boy was the son of a Secret Service agent.

Dolliver liked what Bush did and decided to get out the razor too. In 2014, he grew his hair long and said he would cut it all off when he raised $50,000 for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program. On Tuesday, he said some were skeptical that he would be able to raise such a hefty sum, but in the end he raised $51,000.

Dolliver got the idea to grow his hair long again after all the barber shops and salons closed down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago. This time around, he said he is even shaggier than he was in 2014. His overgrown mop-top made for quite a hot summer, working in the sweltering kitchen of his restaurant, he said.

Dolliver said long hair has never been his style. Growing up in the '80s, he never had the long mane of a “headbanger,” that breed of teenager known to thrash their heads up and down while listening to heavy metal music. Instead, as a wrestler in junior high, high school and college, “I always had short hair,” he said.

And now he has short hair again. And while Dolliver got the scissors on Wednesday, it’s the Maine Children’s Cancer Program that will get the cut – all $180,000 of it.

“They do a hell of a job,” Dolliver said of the organization.

Dolliver added that he could not imagine a better organization and cause to raise funds for.

“Anyone who has done an event with the Maine Children’s Cancer Program knows these kids are fighting for their lives,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Ogunquit man shaves head to raise funds for Maine Children’s Cancer Program