Ohio Northern students have thrown their Barbasol cream to the back of their cabinets and abandoned their razors for cancer. ONU’s Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) chapter is hosting a “No-Shave November” competition in which representatives of other campus organizations attempt to grow or shop for the best looking beard in 30 days.
CAC is a nationwide effort to eliminate cancer through spreading the mission of the American Cancer Society across university campuses. As co-president of ONU’s CAC chapter and senior pharmacy major Kasey Mucher describes, the American Cancer Society’s mission is enacted on Northern’s campus through two main goals.
We have a bunch of goals, but I think you can really split it into education about cancer, cancer prevention, and having cancer and caregiving as well,” Mucher said, “and then also raising money for the American Cancer Society to fund research.”
ONU students can help reach these goals of education and fundraising through participating in CAC’s variety of events. While the organization has held t-shirt and Forever Roses sales in the past and is looking into supporting an obstacle course in the 2018 spring semester, their most popular event in recent years has been their annual Relay for Life.
All fundraising opportunities the CAC holds this school year will give campus organizations the opportunity to gain points for the 2018 Relay. The organization with the most points will receive ice cream at the March 24-25 Relay event, but Mucher said they can be shaved together now by receiving votes for their representative’s beard in this month’s contest.
There are currently nine participants in the competition representing a variety of campus organizations from club sports like Ultimate Frisbee to fraternities like Phi Mu Delta. While the male contestants have foregone shaving for a more natural look, women are also urged to participate in the competition by using synthetic beards.
These students have decided to participate for a range of reasons besides earning points for their organization. For senior manufacturing technology major Joe Peace, thinking of participating made him weary at first.
“I was pretty hesitant because, like I said, I haven’t shaved it off since sophomore year.”
In the end, however, the choice to represent his religious fraternity Sigma Theta Epsilon came from a place of compassion.
People with cancer, they don’t really have hair whatsoever, so if I could shave mine off for a month in support of that,” he said, “why not?”
Peace’s fraternity brother and roommate, Matt Hill, lost his leg to cancer when he was a senior in high school. Hill is now the co-president of Colleges Against Cancer, and he joins a list of CAC members whose lives have been altered in one way or another by the disease.
As Mucher described, “A lot of the members have been affected in some way, and we all have our different [reasons] ‘Why we Relay’.”
To support these members and give to the American Cancer Society to help them reach their goals of education and fundraising, students and faculty can visit the tables outside of McIntosh dining hall from Nov. 27- Dec. 1. People can vote with dollar donations for their favorite beard of the organization representative of their choice, and the organization with the most money by the end of the week will receive special treats at the CAC’s Christmas movie event on Dec. 4.