County Employees Grow ‘Staches, Raise Cash for Men’s Health

Team Noblest MOtive included (back row, left to right) Tim McClain, Bob Spanbauer, Jeff Collins, Luis Monteagudo, Sterling McHale and Dustin Steiner. (Front row, left to right) Josh Ramirez, Daniel Melgoza, Greg Murphy and Chris Champine. Here they pose with a photo of the ultimate mustachioed man, Tom Selleck pictured acting in the '80s TV show Magnum PI.

They got weird looks and lots of questions. Sometimes, people just flat out laughed at them.  

Fortunately, the experiment in humiliation came to an end last week. That’s when a group of brave, mustachioed County employees shaved off their facial hair after a month of letting it grow. They had accomplished their goal: raising awareness and funding for men’s health by sprouting “mo’s” or mustaches during the month of November. The effort was organized through the international nonprofit Movember.

In all, the mustache-growing team, made up mostly of Board of Supervisors staffers, raised $5,566. That total surpassed “any of our expectations,” said Dustin Steiner, chief of staff for Supervisor Bill Horn and a team member.

The funding will go toward prostate and testicular cancer initiatives organized through Movember and its partners, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the LIVESTRONG Foundation.

Another group of County employees, made up mostly of Office of Emergency Services (OES) staffers, also grew out mustaches for a good cause last month: to raise money for the San Diego County Employees’ Charitable Organization (CECO). Mike Davis, a senior emergency services coordinator for OES, organized the effort, dubbed CECOvember. Modeled after Movember, eight employees also refrained from shaving their upper lips last month. Davis expected the group to raise about $300.

Movember got its start in Australia in 2003 with “two guys who wanted to bring back a past fashion trend – the (mustache),” according to its website. Its US presence has grown tremendously in recent years. In 2007, Movember’s first year in this country, 2,127 participants raised over $740,000. By last year, more than 850,000 people participated in the US, raising more than $126 million. This year, 21 countries hosted official Movember campaigns.

Here at the County, a 23-member team called “Team Noblest MOtive” tracked their progress on a web page. Group members didn’t take themselves too seriously, though. Someone put up a photo of the mustache-wearing movie character Ron Burgundy, played by Will Farrell, in the 2004 movie Anchorman. Team members held up a photo of Tom Selleck’s character in the ‘80s TV show Magnum PI in a group shot, as though he was their mustache-growing idol.

The team’s top fundraiser and recruiter was Jeff Collins, Chief of Staff for Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

“I was the muscle,” he joked.

Collins said he knew from the start that the hair in his mustache may not be as abundant as in others'. He used that prediction to encourage others to join, telling them, in effect, don’t worry, my mustache will be the worst.

“I raised the most amount of cash and had the least amount of ‘stache,” Collins said, laughing.

Bob Spanbauer, a legislative assistant in Supervisor Dianne Jacob’s office, spearheaded the effort, after taking part last year. He said the first week was the most awkward.

“Most people had to do a lot of explaining,” he said. After that, it got easier.

Because the movement has gained so much momentum in recent years, some people knew what the mustaches were about right away. Other times, team members explained the backstory. Either way, they said they got support and thanks.

For Steiner, the transition to a mustache was especially dramatic. Steiner had a goatee for 12 years prior to this. But he had to say goodbye to it and start the month off “clean shaven,” as required under Movember’s rules.

It was a “huge change,” he said.

To raise funds, team members sent emails, made calls and asked nearly everyone they knew to donate. Sometimes they included photos in the emails showing their progress.

Collins said Supervisor Jacob asked him to send her a photo of his budding mustache.

“She said she would donate at some point but that she couldn’t stop laughing,” he said.