Nice 'stache! Local group to raise money for Sloan Kettering’s pediatric cancer center

When Long Beach resident Billy Kupferman first began teaching in Garden City, he was overwhelmed when he learned that two third-grade students had cancer.

“They’re both in seventh grade now, they’re OK, but at the time all I could think was, ‘what is there that we can do,’” said Kupferman, 32. “The moral support is there, but you start to think about what you can you do to help families in this situation.”

So five years ago, Kupferman and a group of friends launched a Long Island chapter of Mustaches for Kids to raise money for Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Pediatric Cancer Care center.

Mustaches for Kids is a volunteer-run organization started in Los Angeles in 1999 to do support children with cancer and “have fun” by growing Mustaches in order to generate donations for children’s charities. Since its inception, Mustaches for Kids satellite chapters have spread across the country, and has enlisted the efforts of thousands of participants, who, collectively, have raised nearly $1 million for charities such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Long Beach chapter’s month-long event kicks off on Nov. 11 at Sutton Place, where volunteers shave their faces and let the mustache growth begin. Afterward, volunteers wear a button that reads “Ask me about my mustache” as a way to engage the public and inform them about their fundraising efforts. Kupferman said that over the past four years, the local chapter has raised more than $125,000, and the organization now boasts more than 100 volunteers.

“It’s pretty standard — you start off with an event called Shave Day, where everybody comes in, they get their picture taken and receive a button,” said Kupferman. “You’re doing to something to alter your appearance and that gets you attention — and more donations.”

Kupferman said that smaller events are held throughout the month to support the effort — and keep tabs on everyone’s mustache — until the fundraiser’s final event on Dec. 10 at the Inn, aptly called the ’Stache Bash.

“People come in a mustache-inspired costume,” Kupferman said. “And this year we actually have the Islanders participating, they’re doing Long Island Mustaches for Kids night at Nassau Coliseum on

Dec. 8.”

Kupferman said he is hoping to get more people involved in the initiative and get people to sign up. The Sutton Place event starts at 5 p.m., and will feature happy hour specials, T-shirt and hat sales, and tickets to the Islander game

“And it’s fun — I’ve made a ton of new friends from this,” said Kupferman, who is also known locally for his work through the Long Beach Surfer’s Association.

“When you’re in a bar full of people filled with guys full of mustaches, it attracts attention.”

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