Growing a beard for Charity

If you know me at all, you know that one of my biggest passions in life is following the Carolina Hurricanes, where I work on game-night staff in the Media Relations department. This year, for the first time in 3 years, the Hurricanes are headed back to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

One of all the coolest traditions in all of sports (at least in my mind) is the way hockey players grow playoff beards, starting at the end of the regular season, and not shaving until their team is eliminated from contention. My favorite playoff beard ever was grown by Mike Commodore (who doesn’t cut his hair all season, or shave during the playoffs) in 2006 when the Hurricanes won the cup. Here’s what Mike looked like by the end of the playoffs:

Fans often get in on the action as well, showing their support for the team in their hopeful Stanley Cup run. So this year, the Carolina Hurricanes Kids ‘N Community foundation is sponsoring a Beard-a-thon as a fun way for fans to participate in another cup run, and help raise money at the same time. The Foundation has funded scholarship programs, youth hockey, educational and literacy efforts, children’s health programs, the arts and other children’s related initiatives. Annually, the Foundation provides cash and in-kind contributions of more than $1 million to charitable and educational programs in North Carolina.

When I got to work for last night’s Hurricanes game, the Media Relations staff were pretty excited about the Beard-a-thon and the number of local media who were interested in participating. After some discussion, we decided that if I was going to participate, I needed to start over, since I had been wearing a beard for almost 4 years. When I got home after the game, I looked like this:

Twenty minutes later, I looked like this:

Quite the startling difference!

As I said, this is a fund-raiser, so here’s where I need your help.You can view my profile on the Beard-a-thon website here: https://www.beardathon.com/hurricanes/taft52/profile.aspx Next to the picture, you can rate my beard on a scale of 1-5 pucks. (Please be kind!) Below the picture, there is a button that says Pledge This Beard. If you are at all able, please pledge even just a couple of dollars for my beard as we are all working together to raise money for this great cause.

I’ll be posting new pictures on my Beard-a-thon profile page to update everyone on how my beard is progressing. Due to some good beard genes (Thanks Dad!) my beard will be back in business in no time.