New York International FC coach Nick Platt shaves his head for child cancer research at Rivercrest. Photo: Nicholas Alexandrakos.
April 24, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
A spirited charity head-shave at Rivercrest, a popular bar on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, raised nearly $12,000 for childhood cancer research earlier this month.
The April 3 event marked Rivercrest’s first time participating in the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s annual head-shaving fundraiser, joining other bars in the Stout NYC Hospitality Group in support of the national non-profit. St. Baldrick’s funds life-saving research and treatments for children battling cancer.
Located at 33-15 Ditmars Blvd., Rivercrest hosted a packed crowd as a dozen volunteers took the stage to go bald for the cause. Among them were representatives from National Women’s Soccer League club Gotham FC and Cosmopolitan Soccer League team New York International FC, both of which lent their support to the initiative.
Stout NYC has partnered with St. Baldrick’s for over a decade, with multiple head-shaving events across its venues citywide. This year, Rivercrest joined the effort, raising significant funds and awareness in its inaugural year.
The nearly $12,000 raised will go directly toward research efforts aimed at finding cures for childhood cancers, with organizers already looking ahead to making the head-shave an annual community tradition in Astoria.
Photo: Nicholas Alexandrakos.
New York International FC (NYIFC), which had four members take part in the head-shave earlier this month, proved the most successful fundraiser ahead of the event. All four members took part in forfeits along the way as they hit fundraising goals. For example, first-team manager Nick Platt dressed as a ballerina for one of NYIFC’s Cosmopolitan Soccer League games after the team hit one of its early targets.
Nicholas Alexandrakos, the club’s head of community engagement, said NYIFC provides a space for people to make a difference. The club, which regularly partners with non-profits across the city, such as food poverty charity EV Loves NYC, has made community engagement and involvement a core ethos since it was established in 2019.
“This is a club for everyone. This is really a people’s club,” Alexandrakos said.
Alexandrakos added that the April fundraiser offered the perfect opportunity for community solidarity at a time when the Trump Administration is attempting budget cuts that would reduce funding for cancer research.
“What we’re seeing right now is a lot of negativity, and people are really feeling alienated from the community,” he said. “So New York International, at a very low level and very humbly, is providing a space for people to make a difference. And I think there’s a magnetism there.
“We weren’t going to sit back and just allow this period of time to occur and for us to be bystanders.”
Ciara O’Sullivan, managing partner at Rivercrest, said the bar was “blown away” by the turnout and support for the recent fundraiser. She said the bar hit its fundraising goal of $5,000 so quickly that they were forced to double the goal to $10,000, such was the level of support for the event.
The St. Baldrick’s fundraising page shows that the event raised over $8,500 for the charity, while event sponsor Tito’s has pledged to donate a further $2,000, according to O’Sullivan. Meanwhile, NYIFC pointed to an additional $1,500 that the club raised that has not yet been included in the fundraising total, taking the total amount raised to $12,000.
O’Sullivan said there were mixed feelings among the 12 participants as they had their heads shaved earlier in the month. Some individuals were nervous to lose their hair while others were “excited” to take part. All participants, however, were keen to support a “good cause.”
Alexandrakos said the fundraiser proved so successful that the four NYIFC participants will now take on a new forfeit – a self-funded skydive in their full kits.
“The four of them are going skydiving, and they’re gonna bring a fan with them,” Alexandrakos said. “They’re going out to Long Island this summer. We don’t have the specific date yet… but four guys are jumping in their full kits.”
He added that the club will devise a lottery system to choose a fan to jump with the four players.
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