Grow A Mustache ... Help A Kid

Jason McElweenie — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:00:00 GMT

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 Cancer Center 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 Cancer Center 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.

For contest guidelines and information on how to participate, go to http://houston.mustachesforkids.org. To sign up for the Sweet Stache competition, go to http://www.upcoming.yahoo.com/event/258367/ or call Jason McElweenie at (713) 591 5408.

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23-Oct-07 2:00 PM

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Grow A Mustache ... Help A Kid