Houston Man Launches Mustache-Growing Charity to
Benefit Texas Children’s Cancer Center
HOUSTON, October 23, 2007 -- When kids get sick, some guys will do almost anything
to help them get better – even grow a mustache for charity and ask their lady
friends to participate, said Jason McElweenie, the volunteer who is organizing
the competition for the Houston chapter of Mustaches for Kids.
That’s what’s happening
beginning November 8 with Sweet Stache, a competition that compares the mustache-growing
ability of entrants over a 4-week period. Contestants begin growing their mustaches
on November 15, and attend periodic checkpoint meetings that are more like parties,
to compare the growth, density and overall appearance of facial hair.
Mustache-growers solicit sponsors among friends and family and all donations go
to Texas Children’s CancerCenter to further
research and patient care. He said the charity started almost ten years ago in Los Angeles and has spread to several U.S. cities and Europe.
“This is the first year for
Mustaches for Kids in Houston,”
said McElweenie, who is the group’s self-appointed president. “People keep
asking: ‘Is this a joke?’ I tell them no, and then they say, ‘swear?’” The
various chapters have collectively raised more than $150,000 since 1999, “and of
course, we want Houston
to outpace every other Sweet Stache city,” he said.
“Our
volunteers have always come up with creative ways to raise money to help sick
children, but this is our first experience with a mustache-growing competition,”
said Dr. ZoAnn Dreyer, medical director, Long Term Survivor Clinic, Texas
Children's CancerCenter and associate professor,
Department of Pediatrics, Section of Hematology-Oncology, Baylor College of
Medicine. “This is inventive fundraising and we’re delighted they thought of
us.”
McElweenie says the
competition is all-inclusive. “It’s open to any man who shaves his face, and it’s
also open to women,” he said. “The fact that a woman can’t grow a mustache
doesn’t matter at all because Mustaches for Kids does not discriminate against
anyone on the basis of gender, age, race, nationality or anything else you can
think of. Everyone can raise money for a good cause. Just remember,” he said,
"a mustache is more in the heart than on the face."
Mustaches for Kids works like
this:
The event begins with a meet-and-greet November 8.
Mustache-growing kicks off November 15.
Meet-and-greets continue weekly through December
15,when a panel of judges awards the “Sweetest Stache.”
All meetings take place at Stag’s Head Pub, 2821 Portsmouth, near Greenbriar
and the Southwest Freeway.
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