Mustaches for Kids is a volunteer-run organization started in Los Angeles in 1999 to do good and have fun by growing Mustaches for children’s charities. Since its humble beginnings, Mustaches for Kids satellite chapters have spread across the continent, a steady expansion that is not unlike the measured, deliberate growth of a Mustache. Through the years, Mustaches for Kids has enlisted the effort
s of thousands of brave Growers who, collectively, have raised nearly one million dollars for charities such as DonorsChoose.org, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, and San Francisco’s Legal Services for Children. Here’s how it works: Each year, during the four-week Growing Season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Growers sprout sweet, sweet Mustaches. Per Mustaches for Kids bylaws, they shave their faces, except for the Mustache, a minimum of one time per week and solicit donations from friends, family, co-workers, and people in the community. Call it a facial hair marathon. At the end of the Growing Season, each Mustaches for Kids chapter hosts a Mustache Competition, which is a cross between a beauty pageant, dog show, and police line up. During the Competition, Growers, often in Mustache-enhancing costumes, are put through a test of mind, body, and Mustache and allow their facial hair to be evaluated by an independent panel of judges, and one Mustache is declared to be the “Sweetest.”
So it’s all pretty simple: mustache, charity, competition infused with meaningless pageantry. You can spare four weeks of your life for that. In the words of our founders, “grow with us.”
