City Officials Show Their Support of Cancer Patient

San Marcos City Officials are shaving their heads in Support of a cancer patient.

San Marcos City Officials will shave their head on Friday, March 21 at 3:00 p.m. at San Marcos Fire Station 5 in support of a young cancer patient, Waylon Malone. Waylon’s mother Stacy used to work for the City of San Marcos in the Information Technology department but she moved to Memphis so Waylon could undergo treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. San Marcos Fire Chief Les Stephenson explains how this whole event took shape.

“It was originally my idea, I had read the story on Waylon’s caring bridge website that his mom maintains and saw that he was having a difficult time with his hair loss, this is I think the third time he’s growing his hair out and lost it and he was having a difficult time I thought man it’d be kind of cool to get a bunch of people together to do something and support him and show him that he’s not alone in this and I reached out to a small group of people and they all agreed and it’s grown from there.”
– Les Stephenson

San Marcos Mayor Daniel Guerrero is also shaving his head. Guerrero was diagnosed with a kidney tumor when he was five and was successfully treated. Guerrero didn’t hesitate when he was asked to shave his head

“I was asked and there was not really a whole lot to think about I knew I could do it and I knew I had done it before and I wanted do it and I think a lot of the other folks that had been apart of it have done it out of the goodness of their heart. Whether its been to write a check,  or make a contribution online or to volunteer to have their head shaved its been a collectively its been shared and that’s been fun.”
– Daniel Guerrero

Reneta Yanity Contracts Manager for the City and Cheryl Pantermuehl Finance and Purchasing are the only two women that are participating in the head shaving. Both women said as cancer survivors themselves this is the best way to help Waylon. Yanity feels a sense of accomplishment shaving her head.

“For me it accomplishes a lot it accomplishes a team building with the people I work with at the City it helps a little boy that needs a smile, it helps a family that needs some expenses paid for travel whenever it is and its going to be fun!”
– Reneta Yanity

Will Pantermuehl be nervous about shaving her head? Was your family supportive?

“No, it will grow back. They are really supportive as long as you arent doing something crazy.”
– Cheryl Pantermuehl

Over thirty people who work for the City of San Marcos will be bald. Premier Cuts will send stylists that will perform the shavings. Chris, who is Waylon’s  dad, will also be getting his head shaved. Waylon and Stacy will be able to watch all the action from Memphis are they are planning to Skype in.

Warren Schorr, KTSW News