The history of Shave & Buzz
Shave & Buzz has raised over $1,000,000 since 2016 to benefit adolescent and young adult cancer patients and survivors in the greater Duke community and across the country.
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Shave & Buzz 2024 ...
breaks the $1,000,000 mark!
$215,079.28 raised!
From the Chronicle:
Duke Shave & Buzz club ‘puts heads together’ to reach $1 million in donations
After nine years of fundraising, Duke’s Shave & Buzz club reached $1 million in total donations for young adult cancer patients in May in partnership with Durham Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE). read more
2024 Shave & Buzz Leadership Team
Alex Schlessinger
Nate Drebin
Michael Shoichet
Kyle Abrahm
Max Huber
Ben Goldfried
Vik Manocha
Gavin Kitch
Shave & Buzz 2023 ...
expands to include UNC!
$185,769.05 raised!
Shave & Buzz is an annual fundraising event hosted by the Shave & Buzz Club at Duke. New this year is the collaboration with the PIKE fraternity at the University of North Carolina. This "cooperative and friendly competition" will spark greater awareness of and funds for adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer patients at both the Duke and UNC medical centers.
The PIKE fraternity at Duke originated the first Shave & Buzz in 2016 to support two of their fellow members, Mark Schreiber and Bobby Menges, who were diagnosed with cancer within a month of one another. 100% of the funds raised at Shave & Buzz have supported programs and services for AYA cancer patients and survivors at the Duke University Medical Center, specifically fertility preservation and peer-to-peer support.
From Duke Health Newsletter:
Duke Student Inspires Peer Support Program for Young Cancer Patients
Despite battling cancer on and off from a young age, Bobby Menges not only lived his life to the fullest, but went out of his way to ensure that others could as well. read more
2023 Shave & Buzz Leadership Team
Max Huber - Duke advisor
Vik Manocha - Duke advisor
Ben Goldfried -
Team Duke
Kyle Abrahm -
Team Duke
Gavin Kitch -
Team Duke
Michael Shoichet -
Team Duke
Jack Estelle -
Team UNC
Rish Reddy -
Team UNC
Shave & Buzz 2022 ...
another HUGE SUCCESS!
$166,842 raised!
2022 Shave & Buzz Leadership Team
Max Huber
Vik Manocha
Wyatt Bui - Advisor
Shave & Buzz 2021
beat the odds - and its goal!
$144,734.80 raised!
Despite being virtual for the second year in a row, the PIKE Shave & Buzz 2021 crushed its original goal of $75,000 AND its revised goal of $100,000, raising almost $145,000 for adolescent and young adult (AYA) fertility and peer-to-peer support programs at the Duke Cancer Institute.
From the DCI Newsletter
A Blue Angel
In 2017, Thompson, a medical and family therapist, was forming plans for a support program at Duke for teens and young adults with cancer. The pediatric social workers and physicians all told her, “You need to talk to Bobby.” read more
2021 Shave & Buzz Leadership Team
Thomas Mande
Finn Doherty
Wyatt Bui - Advisor
“Realizing just how great this event is—the tangible good that goes into it, the energy that comes with it—even when it’s virtual, was just awesome and always has been."
---Wyatt Bui
Shave & Buzz 2020 was a COVID SHAVE ... but they beat the odds!
$74,366 raised!
From the Chronicle
Shave and Buzz from afar goes live: Virtual charity event beats fundraising goal
Virtual Shave 2020
Despite having to be enjoyed virtually this year, the fifth annual Shave and Buzz event went off without a hitch and the brothers even surpassed their fundraising goals. The annual charity event held by Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity—formerly called Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby—honors brothers Bobby Menges and Mark Schreiber. Menges died from cancer September 2017. Schreiber, Trinity ’19, is in remission from central nervous system germinoma, which he was diagnosed with January 2016. Normally, the event is held on Duke campus, having taken place in the Bryan Center Landing the last two years. The brothers bring in barbers from around Durham to cut participants’ hair; there is also usually food and a silent auction. This year, Pike’s philanthropy chair Wyatt Bui, a sophomore, told The Chronicle that he asked the brothers if they would be willing to shave at home. He received overwhelmingly positive responses and decided to let each brother raise his own money for the event through social media “challenges.” “So, I’d say something like ‘if I raise 200 bucks, I’ll shave a crazy design into my hair’ or ‘if I raise 300, I’ll do something else,’ and we were able to raise that money,” Bui said. He added that additional donations were also received through their GoFundMe, which has racked up over $47,000 since February. The brothers filmed themselves shaving or cutting their hair at home Mar. 21, many posting their experiences using the livestream feature on Instagram and Facebook, wrote junior Eduardo Palmier Nunes, a fellow Pike brother, in an email. Despite the circumstances, Bui said that Pike raised $72,606 this year, crushing their original goal of $60,000. Nunes wrote that Shave and Buzz is “by far the most important day of the year for our fraternity.” “I think this goes to show the power of this event and of the Duke community that continues to support our efforts year after year,” Nunes wrote. “While running the event remotely was an interesting experience, I look forward to having our University fully operational and being able to have the event on campus once again.” He added that it’s been “especially exciting to see how more members of the Duke community are getting involved” as the event grows each year. Bui said that he found it admirable that many brothers shave their heads without having ever met Menges or Schreiber. “Realizing just how great this event is—the tangible good that goes into it, the energy that comes with it—even when it’s virtual, was just awesome and always has been,” Bui said.
"This was Bobby's favorite day of the year, and
it is the best event I've ever been to at Duke" - Ryan, 2020
Shave & Buzz 2019 ...
$47,980 raised!
From the Chronicle
Foundation in memory of Bobby Menges pledges $875,000
Bobby Menges was known for his smile and constant drive to help others. The junior died in Fall 2017, but he was not done making a mark. His family established the I’m Not Done Yet Foundation in his memory, and it has since pledged $875,000 to help young adults with chronic conditions. “After Bobby died, we knew that we wanted to do something in his memory,” his mother Liz Menges said. The Duke student battled cancer three times before he died at 19 from complications related to a primitive neuroectodermal tumor. The name for the foundation comes from his unceasing push to help others. “He lived his life to the fullest, and he was always raising money or speaking or volunteering, getting involved with things,” Liz Menges said. “So my older son said ‘Why don’t we call it I’m not done yet, because Bobby was never really done no matter what he was doing and how sick he was.'” The focus of the foundation—which is awaiting approval for a 501(c)(3) status—is multifaceted, Liz Menges explained. Through his years receiving treatment, Bobby noticed a gap in the space and resources for young people in care facilities. “You’re in a pediatric setting, so there’s Mickey Mouse on the walls, a cloud, face-painting. The toys in the playroom are juvenile-type things. The social workers, nurses are used to dealing with little kids. And the older patients feel like they’re not in the right place,” Liz Menges said. “The flip side is that if you’re in an adult setting, you’re with a whole bunch of old men and women with oxygen tanks and you’re a 19-year-old. So you’re not really fitting in there either. It’s a complicated type of environment.” Because of the gap Bobby noticed, one aim of the foundation is to create spaces where patients caught in that void can feel at home. The foundation is working with The Cancer Center for Kids at NYU Winthrop Hospital to create a "coffee-shop" style space for older patients, and "I'm Not Done Yet" has pledged $225,000 to the effort. A $500,000, five-year pledge to the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City will fund research exploring how to improve psychosocial care for young adult patients facing chronic illnesses. Liz Menges said there has not been a lot of progress in developing effective treatments for young adult cancers in recent decades, aside from medicines that can extend the patients’ lives for a few months. “The prognosis is quite grim,” she said. “That’s another reason why we want to focus on this age group, because there’s a lot that needs to be done, both psycho-socially as they are trying to deal with this on an emotional level and with their families, professors, friends emotionally and on a medical level.” The foundation has also pledged $150,000 to the Duke Cancer Center for a program that will help young patients with chronic illnesses develop independence, such as through peer-to-peer counseling. “There needs to be programming for families, parents especially, to understand what that means and prepare themselves—especially for kids with chronic conditions,” Liz Menges said. The foundation is a family affair. Bobby’s brother recently held a blood drive, which he and Bobby had done for years. His sister, a professional soccer player, held a kids soccer camp to help raise money for the foundation. At Duke, Bobby was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, which raises money each year for cancer research through the “Buzz for Bobby, Shave for Schreiber” event, in which students have their heads shaved or hair cut for charity. Last year, they partnered with I'm Not Done Yet. “It’s such a good cause and a good way for them to give back to their home-away-from hometown hospital,” his mother said. Aside from providing more than half a million dollars of financial support to the area of care Bobby was so passionate about, the foundation has also helped his family continue his work. “It helps us, especially me, I think, keep his memory alive and continue with the legacy he started,” Liz Menges said.
From the Chronicle
Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby is back for a third year
In the mood for a new hairstyle this spring? Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is proving once again how beautiful bald can be with its Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby fundraiser. The event—which is taking place March 24 between 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Abele Quad—involves a shave-a-thon in which Pike brothers and other members of the Duke community shave their heads in solidarity with cancer patients. It honors two Pike brothers—Mark Schreiber, a senior who was diagnosed with central nervous system germinoma in January 2016 and is currently in remission, along with Bobby Menges who died from his cancer in September 2017. “Bobby loved this event, and the entire day you didn’t see him without a smile on his face,” said sophomore Ryan Fader, one of the philanthropy chairs for Pike. “This meant so much to Bobby, so we want to make this event the best it can be.” Money raised at the fundraiser will benefit the Bobby Menges “I’m Not Done Yet” Memorial Fund, which provides funding for transitioning adolescent oncology at the NYU-Winthrop University Hospital, as well as the adolescent and young adult oncology program at Duke University Children’s Hospital. Now in the fundraiser’s third year, the fraternity is expanding its efforts by adding the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Hair Donation, a movement to create free, real-hair wigs for women with cancer. Stylists from Posh Salon in Durham will be available to cut donors’ hair. The minimum donation is 8 inches of non-dyed hair, and participants will receive a Posh Gift Certificate for taking part in the fundraiser. Fader explained that last year they realized many of the women who attended the event wanted to participate as well. In preparation for this year's event, several of the brothers went to Posh Salon and asked if stylists could come to the fundraiser, and they agreed. “We wanted the girls to be able to donate as well,” he said. “We want everyone in the Duke community to feel as involved as they can.” Junior Noah Eckberg, president of Pike, indicated that this event will be the largest yet, with more planning and fundraising efforts than events in the previous two years. Their goal is to raise $50,000. Donations can be made through the fraternity’s YouCaring page. In 2016, the fraternity raised more than $60,000, with $20,000 donated in the first 24 hours. “We’re trying to keep the event fresh and new,” he said. “Before, we did the event on Clocktower Quad; now it’s right in front of the Duke Chapel.” The event in previous years had about 200 to 300 attendees, but the fraternity is expecting about 500 this year. They’ve also invited patients, doctors and families from the Duke Cancer Institute in the hope of expanding the event's reach. In addition, the event will include free food and drink along with football, spikeball, volleyball and music. Junior Sam Reiff, one of the philanthropy chairs and a good friend of Menges', noted that they are promoting the event by tabling in the Bryan Center and having people change their cover photos and profile pictures on Facebook. “Social media is the biggest way because it allows us to have people donate online,” he said. “We’re trying to collect a lot of the money there.” They are also hosting the Bobby Menges Memorial Blood Drive Friday in Brodhead Center in Room 068 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For the brothers, continuing to fundraise for cancer research allows them to honor Bobby’s legacy and remember their friend. “He touched every person’s life that he encountered,” Fader said. “Everyone in our fraternity has been putting maximum effort into this.”
Shave & Buzz 2018 ...
$75,597 raised!
From Greek Rank
“Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby” - Pi Kappa Alpha at Duke University
The Pike’s at Duke raised a — wait for it — whopping $80,000 this year through their fundraiser, now in its third year. The fundraiser honors two brothers, Bobby Menges and senior Mark Schreiber, who had been diagnosed with cancer. Schreiber is currently in remission from central nervous system germinoma, and sadly, Menges died from cancer as an undergraduate in September 2017. The premise of the fundraiser is to raise money by shaving hair in solidarity, and this year, it expanded to include a blood drive and a hair donation program. “This year, we started planning before Thanksgiving, even though the event wasn’t until March,” said Pike’s philanthropy chair. “It just meant so much to us and so much to the fraternity, so much to Bobby, that we knew it had to be the best that it could be.”
From the Chronicle
Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby raises approximately $80,000 in its third year
The brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha obliterated their fundraising goal in the third iteration of their annual Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby charity event. Pike raised approximately $80,000—exceeding their $50,000 goal—in this year’s fundraiser to honor Bobby Menges and senior Mark Schreiber. Schreiber is currently in remission from central nervous system germinoma, which he was diagnosed with in January 2016. Menges was a brother in the fraternity when he died from cancer in September 2017. Losing Menges made the brothers especially motivated this year to make the fundraiser the best it has ever been. “The first year, the event was thrown together in two-ish weeks and raised $61,000,” said sophomore Aaron Rissman, co-philanthropy chair for Pike. “This year, we started planning before Thanksgiving, even though the event wasn’t until March. It just meant so much to us and so much to the fraternity, so much to Bobby, that we knew it had to be the best that it could be.” The original premise of the fundraiser was for Pike members to raise money by shaving their heads in solidarity with Menges and Schreiber. It expanded this year to include a blood drive run through the American Red Cross and the Pantene Beautiful Lengths hair donation program, which allows girls to donate their hair to be turned into wigs for cancer patients. “We raised something like 43 units of blood, we had 11 girls donate their hair to make wigs, and over 80 people shave their heads,” said junior Noah Eckberg, president of the fraternity. “Roughly 60 of them came from Pike, so 20 other Duke students or members of the community decided that this was a worthy enough cause for them to shave their head as well. That’s something we thought was really cool.” This year, Pike also made adjustments to where the funds that were raised were given. Whereas all money raised the first year went to the Duke University Children’s Hospital, the fundraiser narrowed the recipient of funds to the hospital’s adolescent and young adult oncology program in its second year. This year, proceeds were divided between the oncology program and the Bobby Menges “I’m Not Done Yet” Memorial Fund, which provides funding for transitioning adolescents to the NYU-Winthrop University Hospital Oncology program. Sophomore Ryan Fader, co-philanthropy chair for Pike, explained that their personal connection to Menges and prior experience with philanthropy work largely contributed to their drive to make this year’s event a success. “Bobby was one of the first people I met in Pike, and I really looked up to him,” Fader said. “I saw how much the event meant to him and wanted to run it to make him proud.” They also emphasized how the event is a group endeavor, with the whole fraternity throwing itself into the event every year. “We change philanthropy chairs every year,” Eckberg said “All of us were somewhat new to it this year, in that I wasn’t president last year. We try to preserve institutional knowledge, but naturally there’s turnover.” Pike hopes to continue the trend of widening the scope of S4S B4B. “We need to grow beyond our own realm,” Eckberg said. “This event is not so much about Pike as it is about cancer patients worldwide and Duke coming together as a whole. If we really want to raise more money and get more people involved, we need to expand past the Duke community and far beyond it.”
Shave & Buzz 2017 ...
$66,000 raised!
From the Chronicle
Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby is back for a third year
One year after two brothers were diagnosed with cancer, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is raising money to donate to the new adolescent and young adult oncology program at the Duke University Health System. Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby—named for junior Mark Schreiber and sophomore Bobby Menges—will take place in Clocktower Quadrangle Friday afternoon and will feature a shave-a-thon for people to shave their heads in solidarity with cancer patients. There will also be an auction at Devine’s Restaurant and Sports Bar Thursday. Through their efforts this year, the fraternity hopes to make the fundraiser an annual event. “We don’t want this to just be an event until I graduate,” Menges said. “We want it to be an event where I can come back in 20 years, and they’re still having Shave for Schreiber, Buzz for Bobby, and they don’t even know who those people are." The fundraiser began last year in honor of Schreiber, who was diagnosed with brain cancer during winter break, and Menges, who suffers from neuroblastoma. The fraternity raised more than $60,000, with $20,000 donated in the first 24 hours. Senior Petros Palandjian—former president of Pi Kappa Alpha who helped lead the fundraising efforts last year—noted that other fraternities, sororities and sports teams have become involved. “Last year, it ended up going viral, and we had people contacting us from California and other countries,” he said. This year, their goal is more conservative with the event's online GoFundMe amount set at $20,000. Still, Schreiber said he hopes that corporate sponsors will match donations from the Duke community. In addition to the monetary and publicity benefits of the fundraiser, Menges said he is looking forward to Friday’s event because it reminds him of all of the support he has received. “Last year, it was the best day of my year,” Menges said. “It meant a lot to me when a lot of these guys I barely knew—all we had in common was that we were in the same fraternity—were all willing to not just raise a bunch of money but shave their heads.” Schreiber—along with other young adults who have been treated for cancer—is an advisor to the adolescent and young adult oncology program at Duke, which is still in development. The focus of the program is to provide teenagers with resources to help them cope with their experiences with cancer. It will be modeled off a similar program at the Stanford University Medical Center, where Schreiber received his cancer treatment. Schreiber explained that through the Stanford program, patients receive a Fitbit, a free account to a meditation app called Headspace and an iPad to promote exercise and mental health. “It’s not just about saving lives,” Schreiber said. “There’s no magic pill that’s going to beat cancer, but more importantly, there’s no magic pill that’s going to make you snap back and be equal to your peers.” Although Schreiber’s cancer has gone into remission, Menges continues to receive treatment at Duke. “I don’t want to be bogged down by my disease," Schreiber said. "I want to do everything I can outside of it."
Shave & Buzz 2016 ... the beginning!
From the Chronicle
Pi Kappa Alpha raising money to support cancer research, brothers
To support two brothers recently diagnosed with cancer, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity has raised more than $30,000 for cancer research and programs at Duke Children’s Hospital. Junior Petros Palandjian—president of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity—and senior Will Clark have led the efforts to raise money on behalf of junior Mark Schreiber and freshman Bobby Menges. The GoFundMe page raised $10,000 in the first seven hours after it was created and $20,000 in the first 24 hours of its activity. An additional $3,000 were raised through an auction at Devine’s Restaurant and Sports Bar Thursday. “We had a lot of support off the bat,” Palandjian said. “It affects everyone in different ways, and it’s been cool to see how everyone wants to get involved.” In addition to the ongoing online fundraising efforts, the fraternity will be hosting events throughout the week, including a bake sale and t-shirt sale. Pi Kappa Alpha will hold a barbecue outside their section in Craven Quadrangle Friday during which approximately 45 brothers plan to shave their heads in solidarity with Schreiber and Menges. Schreiber, who was diagnosed with brain cancer during winter break, said that he was moved by the support he has received from current brothers, alumni, other organizations on campus and parents. “It’s hard to not have a positive outlook when people have your back and really care about you,” Schreiber said. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me.” Menges was diagnosed with neuroblastoma—which he had first when he was five years old and again when he was nine—but said that the peer support from his fraternity brothers, especially his pledge class, has made this recurrence distinct. “My pledge class made this card for me with individual notes and inside jokes,” Menges said. “It seems simple, but it really meant a lot to me. I still have the card hanging in my room.” The fundraising efforts have started to expand beyond Duke to local and national levels, Palandjian said. He noted that 25 other chapters of Pi Kappa Alpha have provided support, and said some small businesses have contributed as well. As a result of the response that the GoFundMe page has received, the goal—which started as $10,000—has been increased multiple times, Schreiber said. As of Monday night, the page had almost 400 donations and 2,000 shares. Palandjian noted that he is optimistic Schreiber will beat his cancer. “He’s a pretty special kid and insanely smart,” Palandjian said. “He’s one of the toughest kids I know. We know he’s going to overcome this, and that’s always been my attitude.” Palandjian said that he first met Menges during the pre-orientation program Project Waves, and he immediately found him outgoing and funny. “I remember visiting him in the hospital the day he was diagnosed, and he was sitting there cracking jokes,” Palandjian said. Schreiber said that the fraternity decided to donate the money raised to Duke Children’s Hospital to support cancer patients between the ages of 15 and 29—like himself and Menges—who cannot be treated as pediatric or adult cases. “It can be such a disruptive thing in your life. You’re not supposed to get cancer when you’re young,” Schreiber said. “There’s a lot of resources aimed toward really young kids, and there are a lot of other resources aimed for adults, but they don’t really know where to put us.” Both Schreiber and Menges are taking medical leave from Duke this semester to receive treatment close to home at Stanford University Medical Center and Winthrop University Hospital in New York, respectively. Palandjian said that members of the fraternity have remained in contact with both throughout the process and Menges will be visiting campus for the event Friday and a group of brothers will be visiting Schreiber during spring break. “We feel like a family in a large part,” Palandjian said. “[A fraternity] is supposed to be about getting through things together, and it’s always weird having someone who’s not here.”
Mark Schreiber & Bobby Menges
The Annual "Shave for Shreiber/Buzz for Bobby" (S4S/B4B) PIKE fundraisers at Duke have involved many in the Duke and greater Durham communities. Originally begun in 2016 to support their fraternity brothers, Mark Shreiber and Bobby Menges, who were simultaneously undergoing cancer treatment, PIKE has continued the tradition and it continues to grow. Funds support AYA programs and services for adolescents and young adults at the Duke University Medical Center.
