Good Bye, Mustache!

Written on December 20, 2010.

Well, I am sitting in my office contemplating what tomorrow will look like.  Or, should I say what I will look like.  Over the years, SHS has generated thousands of dollars for the Shepherd Tri-Township's Christmas Outreach Program.  This outreach helps provide gifts to families in need.  SHS has done a fund-raiser called "Penny-Pile-Up" for about 10 years.  In recent years, the Student Improvement Team, who initiated Penny-Pile-Up, included the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of Kara Spindler and Darren Wiles.  During this time, there have been many class competitions and incentives that usually involved a staff member doing something that would motivate the students, like shaving a head, doing a skit, or in my case shaving a mustache.  I am not sure how I feel about it.  I started this mustache when I went to Florida for spring break my Junior year of high school.  That would be the spring of 1986.  Let's see, that is 24 years.  My kids are wondering what is under there.  They are afraid I will look like the people in the "Got Milk" commercials.  I guess if that is the case I will have to take advantage of a tanning package to even things out a little.  My wife, Kristi, and I have talked several times about the incentives, hoping that the students actually understand the importance and value of giving and sharing with others.  We don't want students to donate just to see a crazy antic.  We also want to provide an incentive that makes it fun.  It was under that thinking that I offered up the mustache.  It looks like it has provided some motivation.  The students raised over $1,500.  I don't know how much over the $1,500, but that was the important number to me since that was the goal the students needed to reach to see me get my mustache shaved off.  They even auctioned off the "right" to do the clipping/shaving.  So I don't know what I will look like tomorrow, but if it helped provide an incentive for students to donate to others so they can have a brighter Christmas, it was worth it!

P.S.  The students did raise the $1,500.  So I did have to shave.  I started growing it out again, though!