BEULAH - Two men who shaved their heads to raise money for children's cancer research know the heartache of it.

Lynn Bruce, of Beulah, whose daughter Kennedy is in cancer remission, and Ivar Frantsen, of Hazen, whose daughter Kristen died of it nearly 10 years ago, shaved their heads in front of more than 100 cheering co-workers Monday during the St. Baldrick's Foundation hair-shaving fundraiser.

The 19 other men and one woman from Dakota Gasification Co. who also shaved heads, moustaches and eyebrows raised a total of $15,213 and appear to have been the winning team among Basin Electric Power Cooperative employees.

DGC called itself, "The good, the bald and the ugly."

Bruce's daughter, Kennedy, is only 13, young to already have had two different cancers, the second one a form of bone cancer.

She's had all the treatment she can bear, for now, and the cancer seems to be gone.

"We don't know what's in store," Bruce said.

For kids like Bruce's and Frantsen's and sick children everywhere, co-workers were eager to pitch in cash or get bald themselves. Some pulled off their hard hats and sat in their work coveralls, while their co-workers cat-called and dished up good-natured ribbing.

"Losing hair is nothing compared to losing our daughters and sons," Bruce said.

Frantsen knows truer words were never spoken.

He said he's looked at other fundraisers, but this was the one.

"It's definitely because it's for kids," he said.

His daughter died in four months from a brain stem tumor and Frantsen said new techniques to treat cancer might have helped a decade ago.

The money he raised might help save another child.

He rubbed his short blond hair while he still had it and said, "I guess I'll see how hard I was on my head when I was a kid."

Cindy Kuylen, of Pick City, said it wasn't hard to decide to shave off her hair after looking at the St. Baldrick's Web site, with its pictures of children bald from chemotherapy.

"How can you not?" she said.

For everyone, cancer is personal. In Kuylen's case, she has a niece who went through breast cancer at age 29.

Kuylen said she'd get through her weeks of baldness with a few hats, caps and scarves.

"Sometimes, I'll just go bald," she said.

All together, 109 Basin employees from DGC, headquarters, LeLand Olds Station, and in Wyoming raised more than $60,000, then had a $15,000 match from Basin itself.

"This surpassed any of our wildest expectations," she said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511, or lauren@westriv.com.)