By Mike Armstrong
Reporter, Carbon County Comet
On November 1, starting at 5:30, in the Malt Burger Bar (Malt), in the town of Saratoga, clean-shaven Valley men are going to be given a challenge.
They will be given a month to grow either, the ugliest, grossest, or best mustache and the winner will have some bragging rights, along with a prize.
There is an entrance fee to this contest which will go to helping a neighbor as the Christmas holidays approach. The idea is to have some fun but also raise money for a family, single mom, or individual and hopefully may make the holiday season a bit more joyful.
The mustache entrance fee will be around $20.
This unusual fundraiser is at the instigation of Danny Burau and Pat Vining.
“Pat and Cassie (Vining) came into the Malt and I was working the bar,” Burau, who is the owner of the Malt, said. “I currently do have a sort of ridiculous mustache and we started talking about it. Pat has had a mustache for most of the time I have known him. He told me when he was in Windsor running their Fire Department, they came up with this idea and it was fun and raised about $4,000 to just help families that needed a little assistance.”
Burau knows that growing a mustache in a month means a lot of men are going to be looking funny.
“First of all not all that many men can pull off wearing a mustache and it look good. And even if you are a person who can carry it off, that first month can look funny,” Burau said. “No beard is allowed. It is only the mustache that can be grown. Few guys can grow a mustache during a month and not look a little ridiculous. Not many men are Burt Reynolds.”
A mustache usually looks bad the first two weeks when growing in on most men, and Burau expects the men participating to be asked why they are doing this. The fundraiser can then be explained.
“It is a very face-forward way, no pun intended, to tell what is happening,” Burau said. “They can point out they are trying to help raise money for a family or person who will benefit from what we are doing in a manner which can help make them happy about the holiday season, instead of feeling a bit depressed.”
Another component to raising money is friends and family can donate to a certain participant, and whoever raises the most money also gets a prize.
“I admit, this will be the first time in my life, I will only have a mustache with no beard,” Burau said. “I know I will look ridiculous, and I would only do this for a fundraiser.”
Burau said because this is a new type of fundraiser they are limiting it to Valley men.
“We want to learn how the mechanisms will work for this,” Burau said. “There is a similar type of fundraiser for prostrate cancer called Movember, but we want to help benefit people in the Valley. After this year, we hope to open it up to all of Carbon County. This year we want to keep it smaller, so we can learn what we did right and what we did wrong and where we can improve.”
He recommends questions about the fundraiser can be answered by him or Vining or by going to the Malt’s Facebook page, where the event is also explained.
Burau said all the money raised, whether through the entrance fee or people who just want to donate to a worthy cause, will go to the selected recipient. The prizes for the mustaches will likely be in certificates donated by the Malt.
“We want all that money to go the people for the holiday season,” Burau said. “At the end of the month, we want to be able to give cash to whoever we choose. It’s about helping people who could use a little financial relief.”
He said potential recipients will be discussed in the first meeting.
Burau is hopeful it will be successful to where next year it could be a County-wide contest because he feels the impact to help others would be greatly increased.
“We absolutely want to grow this, but we don’t want it to be too big this year,” Burau said. “We want to get all the fundraising mechanisms in order before we try this on a grander scale. This is sort of a test run.”
So if you see a mustache look like it’s in its infancy in the Valley, good chance you are seeing a man trying to help a neighbor, which is very much a Carbon County trait.
This fundraiser looks to be fun, and helpful.
It is exactly the sort of event to support as the holidays approach, whether a person is a participant, or is someone who wants to help a neighbor who needs a little financial lift.
Burau encourages people to come to the November 1 meeting and decide whether they are going to grow a mustache or not. He thinks if many show an interest in helping a neighbor in need, a positive message will be sent out to the Valley.
“That is never a bad thing,” Burau concluded.
