Septembeard Raises Money for Cancer Research

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According to the National Cancer Institute, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-caused deaths among men.

The men behind Septembeard.org believe a cure for prostate cancer can be found in our lifetime, given enough funding. That’s why they’ve asked guys throughout the country to grow beards to raise money and awareness about prostate cancer.

Some cancers have already been cured. In the feature article of July’s issue of Runner’s World, John Brant explained that acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma are now curable, thanks to federally funded cancer research. Unfortunately, federal funding for cancer research has flat-lined in the last decade. As Brant explains:

“Currently, only about 9 percent of grant applications to the institute receive funding on the first try. As a consequence, researchers avoid cutting-edge projects in favor of more conservative proposals that are more likely to win bureaucratic approval, but less likely to yield clinical applications that save lives.”

So there is a big door open for private companies, such as the Susan G. Komen for the Cure for breast cancer, or the various beneficiaries participating in the Septembeard campaign, to “think outside the box” to spread awareness and raise funds.

Not long after reading Brant’s article, I saw a promotion for Septembeard.org in the September issue of Runner’s World, and I hoped I could get some guys from work to join me in growing our beards out. When Spencer Smith, our bearded business development manager, got on board, we started discussing ways to make it an office-wide effort, and even invited our sister companies to join us in a friendly inter-office competition to help drive donations.

Our own team, Auctibeards, quickly grew to 14, donations started coming in and the buzz grew around the office, with people thinking about even more ways to increase awareness of the campaign.

We were on the leader board for the Western division from the first day, but most of our donations were from guys on our team. I was encouraged when I saw the first donation from someone whose name I didn’t recognize; it started to look like we might actually be able to make a difference this month.

If you’d like to help sponsor our beards, visit our Auctibeards team page. The Web site makes it easy to donate with a credit or debit card, and allows you to choose between six major institutions working on stopping prostate cancer.