All Hail the King. Andrew Munch is crowned the Sweetest Stache for 2009.

What a great year! The year is now officially wrapped up- we’ve received the last of the donations, and our final amount raised is higher than reported earlier. Here it is:

Mustaches For Kids’ Ottawa Chapter of 100 growers raised a whopping $32,000 this year for the Make a Wish Eastern Ontario. A boost of more than $12,000 from 2008, the 2009 grand total is thanks to the big efforts of our growers and the gracious donations from so many friends, family, coworkers and supporters! A big congratulations to all!

And what a ‘Stache Bash we had this year! It was our fifth annual Sweetest ‘Stache competition hosted once again by writer/performer Sylvie Hill, and by far our best yet! The crazy fun went down at Hooley’s Pub on Elgin Street on Friday, December 4, with Alex Tribek (Andrew Munch) taking the sash for sweetest ‘Stache for his final performance in the beatbox dance-off.

A house full of every mustaschioed character from the Italian Spiderman, Gepetto and Mark Twain to some of the standards like Magnum, Mario&Luigi and Ron Burgundy.

The pictures taken by Paul Galipeau can be found on Flickr, some on the Facebook group, and in the M4K Gallery.

This is the home stretch. You have a week left to persuade, plea, pry, and pester for pledges. Every little bit helps. The efforts in this last week will probably mean giving another child a life-changing wish.

You guys have done a really great job this year in promoting and furthering the cause. I am proud to wear this stache with such a fine group of young men.

See you Friday.

Stache Bash

Two words: dress to impress. And be prepared for a good time.

We will be descending upon Hooley’s Pub on December 4.  There will be half price apps and drinks.Plan to be there at 7:30pm. The festivities will start promptly at 8pm. More information can be found on the site.

Prizes

It is new this year, but we have prizes for the top fundraisers.A big thanks to Dennis from Make a Wish for pulling these prizes together. If you see him around on Friday, be sure to say thanks – you can’t miss him, he’ll be wearing a mustache.

And the prizes are:

1. Signed Daniel Briere Jersey.

2. Overnight trip to Calabogie Resort for two with 1 round of golf.

3. Sens tickets.

We also have a special prize for the sweetest stache but you won’t find out until the sash is presented.

Of course there is also the Kevin Janok Award for worst stache. Typically it goes to Kevin Janok – but there are some nastaches this year and with the right costume he could be dethroned.

Pledging and Dropping off money

This isn’t all that complicated, here is everything you need to know:

• Bring all your money and pledge sheets with you on Friday. Write your name on the pledge sheet. Have it totaled prior to arrival.
• Please write a cheque for the cash portion of your pledging. This is a nice-to-have and saves us a lot time and effort.
• Don’t include donations over paypal on your pledge sheet.  At the venue, we will have the total amount pledged to you over paypal.
• For those who pledged to you over paypal, they will get a receipt, we have their information.
• If you can’t make it on Friday, you have a few options:
  • drop off your money and pledge sheet to me during business hours at my place of work or on the weekend/evenings to my house – email me for the address and my mobile number
  • send money to this email address from online banking.
  • send the money through paypal on the site
  • mail checks to me. email for the address.

We will be meeting up this Friday at Hooley’s Pub at 292 Elgin Street. Come out this Friday and meet some of your brothers-in-stache. Trade humiliating stories, general non-threatening taunts and jibs and pledging tips. If you haven’t made out yet, then try to make it out for a beer, it would be great to meet some of you rookie growers.

There will be half price apps and drinks until 9pm.

Hope to see you there.

Read on for pledging tips and information.

Pledging

The easiest way by far it to direct your friends and family to the website to donate on line.

Here are a few tips to help you get the word out:

• Send an email to everyone you know.  There are some tips on the website on some
• wording that you can use.  Don’t forget to send the link to the website.
• Change your status on facebook to say your’re growing a mustache and ask people to donate. Dont be afraid to change it a couple times a week. And change your photo to a nice stachey pic to get the point across.
• Posters are available to print from the website. And we have pins and biz cards if you want them.

Pledging – FAQs

do you prefer if we bring the money we’ve collected each week, or wait until the final day before bringing in the pledge forms and money?

Wait until the final day and feel free to check in each week. For the cash you have collected, write a cheque for the total amount made out to Make a Wish Eastern Ontario.  For any donor that is writing a cheque, they can make it out to Make a Wish Eastern Ontario – and bring the cheques along with you to Stache Bash.  Use the pledge form for people who want tax receipts, and when you turn in your pledge shee on the final day, be sure to list your total amount raised.

I posted a few photos from Friday on the Facebook page and the rest are in the gallery on the site.  Thanks to Paul Galipeau for the awesome shots.

Pledging

I would encourage you to start your fundraising right away. The pledge form is available for download on the site.

Check in with us throughout the campaign with your progress so we can update our raised-to-date number.

If you weren’t there, Make-a-Wish has given us a signed Daniel Briere jersey for the top fundraiser.

Meetups

We will be meting on Friday at the Clocktower at 7pm. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, just send in your photo to me.

The following meetups are going to be held at other participating bars like the Standard and Hooley’s. Details to come.

Stache Bash

The Stache Bash will be held at Hooley’s this year. And, (drum roll), our beloved Sylvie Hill will be joining us again to corral the stache stampede.

Photos

If you don’t see your photo on the site:

• You need to Join to appear on the site. (returning members are not grandfathered in)
• If you don’t make it out to the meetups, send us a shot by email and we’ll post it.

There are only 5 short days until clean shave day and my follicles are tingling.

A few tips to make the most of your clean shave week:

• Update your facebook status to say “I am growing a mustache for Mustaches for Kids. Clean Shave day is Octover 30.” and share the m4kottawa.org link with your buds
• Download and print the poster for your office/apt building/cave/etc. Big ups to Ben Watts for this year’s poster design.
• Forward this email along to all those guys who last year said ” hey, that’s a bitchin’ stache, can I grow next year”
  

If you haven’t already, please sign up. Most importantly get the m4k rookies to sign up so I can get them on the list.

If you missed last week’s email, you can read it here.

See you on Friday.

We are happy to announce the FIFTH ANNUAL MUSTACHES FOR KIDS MUSTACHE GROWING CONTEST AND FUNDRAISER. This letter is your official personal invitation to greatness.

Last year, you, our devoted mustachees, raised $20,000 for Make a Wish Eastern Ontario. For more details on how your efforts helped, I have posted a letter from the people at Make a Wish: http://www.m4kottawa.org/2009/10/06/how-our-stachely-efforts-in-2008-helped-others/

So sharpen up your razors because Clean Shave Day is October 30, only a couple short weeks away.  We will be meeting at the Clocktower on Bank St to celebrate this loss of innocence. If we’re going to continue to beat our fundraising record, we’re going to have to bring our A-game this year. Encourage your friends/co-workers/family to join as well. “A single hair is nothing on its own, but united they form a mighty Mustache!”

The amount we raised this year speaks for itself. Thanks to your efforts and enthusiasm we’ve raised $16,000 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Eastern Ontario. Mike at Make-a-Wish has told me that a wish is in the works and I’ll let you guys know as soon as I know the details and how your efforts are helping.

The Stache Bash Sash Goes too…

Hats off to Todd Headon for claiming the Stache Bash Sash. Truly a great costume, a world class stache and a helluva guy. Congrats. Another one thats gonna be hard to live up to. The bar has been set.

The Portraits

Thanks to Paul Gallipeau (www.lechampiondumonde.com) for taking the glamour shots. I didn’t think we could possibly look any better than we already do, but the photos make your stache larger than life:
http://flickr.com/photos/paulgalipeau/sets/72157611202610943/

Many Thanks

M4K Ottawa would be a naked upper lip without the help from our good friends:

• our one-of-a-kind emcee Sylvie Hill
• our photographers Paul Gallipeau and Bex Fernando
• Zaphods for the Stache bash
• the Clocktower for giving us a home for our 5 weeks

And of course my co-organizers Steve Palmer and Mike Hollingworth.

Next Year

Go forth and spread the word. Next year will be our biggest and best yet. Can you believe we will be 5 years old already.

Brett Tackaberry

We are in the home stretch – 2 days to Stache Bash. Reminder, and error correction from last week, please arrive at 7:30pm at Zaphods. We will be getting underway promptly. The address is: 27 York Street in the Market. Dress to impress or dress to kill – which ever suits your fancy.

Reel in those bucks over the next couple days and bring it in with you on Friday. If you have a chance, please have your cash changed into a cheque – your cooperation is really appreciated. All cheques must be made out to Make-a-Wish.

If you can’t make it on Friday let us know. We will find a way to collect your pledges and get you a t-shirt.

A big thanks to Jose at Joe Mamma’s. We will have some gifts from Joe Mamma’s to auction off. So, if you’re a boarder or skiier or like to look like one, you’ll dig this stuff.

If you have any questions, leave a comment on the blog and we’ll get it answered.

Enjoy your last week of sweet stacheyness.

Brett Tackaberry

Update: Bring in pledge sheets with donor contact information if donors have requested a tax receipt. Donations of $20 or more are eligible for a receipt.

Update: Check us out in the news: Moustache-growing event raises money for sick children By Priya Ner in Centretown News, and today in the Sun.

Thank you to Jose at Joe Mama’s for gift donations, getting his suppliers and employees involved and being a general, all-around, good grower.

Joseph Thornley is growing a mustache for M4K Ottawa this year. This year, Joe will match every contribution that is pledged through him up to $1,000. Pssst, go donate on his behalf.

This week we will again meet at the Clocktower at 8pm. Look for us upstairs as there is another function downstairs. Pictures will be taken, beers will be drank, and the regular tomstachery will ensue.

But how goes the pledging? Great, to hear it. If you’re anything like me you probably sent out an email to friends, family, colleagues, clients, enemies, ex-girlfriends, etc. You may get the occasional response like “I made a donation through Pay Pal. It is more of a sympathy donation for the difficulties you have in growing a moustache rather than for your success. Nevertheless, the cause is worthwhile and I should not penalize the charity because of your problems. Cheers!”. But you wouldn’t be doing this if you can’t have a chuckle at yourself.

Stache bash — t minus 15 days and counting.

That’s all folks. Over and out. Good hunting. See you on Friday.

Brett Tackaberry