A hair-raising challenge is under way to raise cash for the Courier-backed ARCHIE Foundation’s £2 million Tayside Children’s Hospital Appeal.
Beards for Bairns will see Courier country men set their razors and shavers aside between Christmas Day and Burns Night and grow a beard, sponsored by family, friends and colleagues.
ARCHIE’s chief executive David Cunningham said the campaign was originally launched after realising the vast majority of the foundation’s existing supporters were female.
He said: “We wanted to do something that encouraged men to get behind the charity.
“It’s been really succesful and we’re hoping to see as many men as possible across Tayside and Fife take part as well.”
Beards for Bairns raised a respectable £10,000 in 2012 in Aberdeen but has now gone from strength to strength, pulling in more than £150,000 this year.
David hopes Tayside and Fife will take the idea to their hearts and faces.
“The first year was very limited, just to see how it would go and how many people would be willing to do it.
“The second year was better and one of the big differences was that we said to people that we knew they did a lot of sponsored events, so we said the minimum to take part was just £10.
“That made a lot of people decide to do it.
“A lot of people bought entry into Beards for Bairns as a secret Santa gift at Christmas.
“If anyone wants to do that this year, we’ll send them a little razor and a tag saying ‘You have been entered into Beards for Bairns as your secret Santa gift and you won’t be needing one of these razors for a while’.
“That made people who had done a lot of sponsored things take part because it was a bit different. Then they ended up saying they would get sponsored and set up a fundraising page, and it just went crazy.”
Beards for Bairns asks for people to support it by donating or raising a minimum of £10 for men taking part in the four-week challenge.
Courier staff have already pledged their support by promising to shun their shavers to raise cash towards a new operating suite in Tayside Children’s Hospital.
David added: “Every man can do this whether you can grow a fabulous big beard or, like me, not such an impressive sight!”
To take part in Beards for Bairns all you need to do is register at www.archiefoundation.org.uk and then miss your morning shave between Christmas Day and Burns Day.