2019 Grow & Give to End Prostate Cancer: A Hair-Raising Success!

Wow! This year’s Grow & Give to End Prostate Cancer campaign was a record breaking success thanks to more than 750 participants from 80 teams worldwide putting down their razors and growing sweet mustaches and beards to raise awareness and funds to fuel ZERO Prostate Cancer’s patient support, advocacy and research programs. From Parsippany, N.J., to Portugal, participants raised over $170,000 for men and their families! Isn’t that stache-tastic?! 

Throughout the month of November we saw a lot of terrific photos and videos from police agencies, corporations, and individual dudes who had fun with the campaign. Here are a few of our favorites:

Team captain of the Boston Scientific Marlborough office team Paul Devlin had a very nice beard to begin with, so before he shaved clean to start November, he asked for donations and offered to custom create a beard look based on his donor’s choice. Their choice … the famous Food Network Star Guy Fieri. Meet Paul “Guy Fieri” Devlin: we think Flavortown would approve! 

The Murrietta (California) Police Department – you wouldn’t know it from the leaderboard, but this first responder agency participated for the first time in ZERO’s Grow & Give campaign. We love that a little facial hair didn’t stop the female officers of the agency from participating and having fun!

Prostate cancer patient Steve Bleser also got in on the fun – he’s currently battling his second occurrence of prostate cancer. Unfortunately for Steve, the cancer is aggressive and not responding to chemotherapy or radiation so now he’s hoping that clinical trials will help. For Steve, this is personal – he wants to spend more time with his sweet granddaughters – so he promised his supporters that if he raised more than $2,500 for G&G, he’d dye his beard blue. Well, he raised that and more and is among our top three fundraisers! Learn more about his story here.

Let’s give a shout-out to our top fundraisers and teams too!

Fundraising Champs – Individuals

1. Warren Macey ($5,620) – Warren has been participating in honor of his father who he lost to prostate cancer. Warren has raised more than $10,000 since 2014 to fuel ZERO’s programs. 
2. Steve Bleser ($3,164) – Steve is an advanced prostate cancer patient from North Carolina who is counting on us to provide support, and ultimately find a cure, for the disease.
3. Paul Devlin ($2,535) – Paul loved his beard dearly, but he loves fighting prostate cancer with his Boston Scientific colleagues even more. So he shaved it off for a good cause! Bravo, Paul!
4. Paul Martin ($2,098) – Wow, a battle of the Boston Scientific Pauls, ey? We don’t choose sides, we appreciate you both!

Fundraising Champs – Teams

1. Baird “NovemBeard” 2019 ($14,608) – Baird grew beards. Say that five times fast! (And we’ll say THANK YOU, Baird five times fast!)
2. Boston Scientific – Marlborough ($10,861) – Our friends at Boston Scientific’s headquarters really turned up and showed their amazing support for the patients that they serve!
3. Boston Scientific – MH Field Sales ($8,018) – Oh man, another Boston Scientific showdown. We’re not getting in the middle of this!
4. Murrieta Police Department ($6,438) – This Southern California police department lives by the motto of “Partners With Our Community.” They certainly proved it by raising money for their friends and family affected by prostate cancer.

Biggest Team – Community

1. Blue Crew – This team was led by NCAA basketball coach and prostate cancer survivor Jeff Jones. Go ahead and cut down the net, Blue Crew! Y’all won big!
2. Volturno Framingham – this Massachusetts pizza joint is GROWING to end prostate cancer!
3. Shaker Road BROvember – Shaker Road BROvember going strong for the SIXTH year in a row! Wowwowwow!
4. We Are Warriors – Our favorite crooner and National Spokesman Jimmy Charles organized his community around the prostate cancer cause with a live GROWvember concert. Way to hit the high note, Jimmy!
    

Biggest Team – First Responders

1. Murrieta Police – First place in two categories! We love overachievers! 🙂 
2. Rialto Police – Rialto PD were a close second behind their SoCal neighbors. Maybe next year, fellas!
3. Miccosukee Police – The first Florida Law Enforcement Agency to join ZERO to Grow & Give — so many amazing beards and mustaches were grown to raise awareness!
4. Parsippany PBA Local #131 – Hope some facial fuzz kept the members of this police department warm during the New Jersey November!

Biggest Team – Corporate

1. Boston Scientific – U.S. – Medical devices or major do gooders? We think both!
2. Baird Advisors – Bonds for beards!
3. Tito’s Handmade Vodka – This company’s founder designed Tito’s to be a philanthropic company that just happens to make vodka. Cheers to you Tito’s! 
4. Dendreon – Biotech for beards!
    

Special shoutout to our business bros who partnered up this year. Wahl Grooming, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Kessler Shaving Co., P.L.A.Y. Pets, Mustache Vineyards, Boston Scientific, Baird, and Pfizer — you guys sponsored fundraising incentives, gave a cut of product sales, or made Grow & Give an official employee cause. We’re so grateful.

So what do you say, Stache Squad? Ready to get growing again for next year? Good news! You can do Grow & Give at ANY time of the year, not just November! Head to Grow & Give to learn more.