'That's the American spirit': Officials, Patriots lose their hair for cancer research

QUINCY – Christine Koch couldn't help but poke fun at her husband, the mayor, as he sat in a barber's chair Tuesday morning.

"Not too short!" she joked to the Milton woman shaving her husband's head.

"Christine, honey, are you still going to love me?" Mayor Thomas Koch asked as his hair started to fall.

The mayor's new look is courtesy of Granite Telecommunications' "Saving by Shaving" event, which annually donates millions of dollars to Boston Children's Hospital's cancer research efforts.

"The spirit of this country is embodied every year in this event," Koch said. "You have a company that is innovative and creative, and you have a very successful businessman in Rob Hale, but he and his team know you have to pay it forward. That's the American spirit: You work hard, you do well and you share it with others."

Alongside Koch at Granite's headquarters were almost 900 Granite employees, Gov. Charlie Baker, Granite CEO Rob Hale, Children's Hospital CEO Kevin Churchwell, former New England Patriots players Joe Andruzzi and Matt Light and current players David Andrews and Kyle Van Noy.

Quarterback Mac Jones also made an appearance, but did not participate in the shaving event.

Baker, whom Hale credits with putting the event on the map, joked that he loves getting to "make fun of guys that are a lot bigger than me and seem to have exactly the right attitude about all of this. Mac Jones, you better get your damn hair cut."

The governor's head was shaved by Ron Affsa, of Quincy's Hair Place One, who said he and his employees have donated their time to the fundraiser before.

"It's a great cause. I think everyone has been touched by cancer at one point or another," Affsa said.

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After everyone was appropriately shorn, Hale presented Churchwell a check for $5 million. A virtual version of the event raised $7.5 million last year, and the March 2020 shave-a-thon took place just days before the state entered coronavirus lockdown.

"I love it," Hale said of being back in person. "It was almost two years to the day that we were last in here. We were so fortunate nobody got sick. To be able to come back today and replicate all of that positive energy is so great."

Former Patriots guard Joe Andruzzi was a major contributor to the positivity in the room. A jokester through and through, Andruzzi messed with the current players and said Granite's mission has a special place in his heart.

"I'm a cancer survivor myself, so it's just one of those things," Andruzzi, a Patriot from 2000 to 2004, said. "Rob and his wife are doing so much for the cancer community. Bald is just bald. It grows back."

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Andruzzi said he's attended the Granite event several times, and this was the third or fourth time for Matt Light.

Andrews said it was Light's influence that drew him in this year.

Light said, "(Tom) Brady has done this, Mac (Jones) will be here today. It's fun to be that link to this, it makes people more comfortable when someone who went before you is vouching for something. The offseason doesn't last long these days and these guys are pulled in a lot of different directions, so it's nice to have to have someone in the locker room saying, 'This is a good cause.'"

Before the big names took the stage, hundreds of Granite employees had their heads shaved. Hingham's Cindy Quinchia brought her teenage son and a friend to get shaved.

"I already miss it," her son, Benicio Kiley, said. "It feels great, but also I want my hair back."

Norwell resident John Cheverie said this was the seventh or eighth time he's participated.

"It's for a good cause and, really, that's all it takes," he said. "I want to be supportive."

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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Patriots players, local officials lose their hair for cancer research