51.0°,
Light Rain A ’Stache Bash in Long Beach
Mustaches for Kids' fundraiser marks end of month-long initiative to help children with cancer
If you’re wondering why so many people in Long Beach have been sporting mustaches lately, it’s not due to some new hipster trend and they’re not a devoted group of Tom Selleck or Burt Reynolds fans.
Most likely, the guy with the ’stache in line at the supermarket or buying a drink was a volunteer with Mustaches for Kids and has been raising money for Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Pediatric Cancer Care Center.
Mustaches for Kids is a volunteer-run, national organization that supports children with cancer, and volunteers grow mustaches in order to generate donations for children’s charities. The Long Beach chapter’s month-long event kicked off on Nov. 11 at Sutton Place, where volunteers let the mustache growth begin.
Throughout the past month, the group held a number of fundraisers and events around the city, while volunteers wore buttons that read “Ask me about my mustache” as a way to engage the public and inform them about their fundraising efforts. Over the past four years, the local chapter has raised more than $125,000, and the organization boasted more than 100 volunteers this year.
The group held its ’Stache Bash at the Inn on Saturday, where more than 200 people turned out in wild costumes to compete in a series of wacky competitions for the final fundraising initiative — for instance, participants lathered their mustaches in toothpaste and dived face-first into a plate of sprinkles — and the group ultimately raised $70,000 this year.
“The Inn was packed,” said Billy Kupferman, one of the chapter’s founders. “We brought in between $15,000 and $20,000 just that night. We got a $1,000 donation from a random stranger to put us over our goal of $68,000.”
“We really grew a lot this year,” Kupferman added. “Not just in terms of the ’stache but in terms the number of guys and girls participating. We had an incredible season and we were able to beat last year’s total. We now have a grand total of $195,000 raised in five years. It’s very impressive, and we also had a great experience again with the kids and staff at Sloan-Kettering. It’s a wonderful place and well deserving of the money we raise.”
