Toupée’s for Troops | Gettysburg Flag Works
It is that time of year again! November is fast approaching and that means our annual No Shave November campaign will soon begin. No Shave November is a special event that was started many years ago as fun way to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer & cancer research.
Last year at Gettysburg Flag Works, some of the guys in our office agreed to get their pictures taken every day so we could see the progress of the growth of their facial hair. We had bets going, and an organization that we were raising money for. You may remember, last year we raised awareness and funds for our local AMVETS group.
As a way to expand our horizons, while still trying to stick to military awareness, we wanted to come up with a different group to sponsor this year. It is a tough balance trying to keep the hair involved, trying to get the ladies in the office involved as well. What to do this year? What to do?
After a quick brainstorming meeting, we came up with a few fun ideas! We ended up choosing to move forward with “Toupée’s for Troops.”
Now I know what you must think…”Toupée’s for Troops?” What on earth does that mean?! Will they be wearing toupée’s? Are we going to be collecting toupée’s to give to soldiers? No no no. Instead, we are going to find some fun wigs to take some goofy pictures with (to raise awareness and to support our troops!), while collecting items soldiers generally need and appreciate while they’re deployed. The guys will be allowed to choose the facial hair they plan to grow as well.
As for the girls, in order to keep them involved and to keep with the core of the event, we will have them take pictures with fun facial hair designs made out of fabric. We will have these fabric facial hair designs mounted to sticks to make it easy. Just for fun, we might take some pictures with the same wigs as the guys! Subtle, but fun.
Along with all the fun with the pictures, beards, wigs, etc, we have to keep in mind the group we are helping out! This time of year is very hard on soldiers, being away from their families and all. One of our local “Military Mom’s,” who collects countless items throughout the year to send packages to our deployed soldiers every month (if not several times per month!) has agreed to help us! She supplied a list of items that are OK to send to the troops, and will help us package and send the boxes to the troops, once the month is over.
We are excited about this event, and hope you will be too! Make sure to keep an eye on our company Facebook page for updates on the event, a list of items “OK’d” to donate, and fun pictures of our staff. It’s a great time, for a great cause, and our hope is to help raise some awareness for the No Shave November campaign, as well as the needs of our brave soldiers!
Cheryl, hi I am a 3 time cancer survivor and one of the individuals that brought Movember in November to the USA from Australia cancer survivors. I was glad to hear of your work and did not understand the “no shave in November” and how you are not part of the Nationwide Movember campaign this November? is there any way you can join us? Let me know? I am glad you are supporting the toupee wig program to our troops. More ways to reach all about Men’s cancers. Thank you. Timothy Lunceford
Timothy, we’ve twisted the idea of Movember and are calling our program No-Shave November so that we can raise awareness and funds (or goodies in this case) for a group or organization more in line with our customer base. This year we’re collecting goodies to be sent to the American soldiers stationed overseas. It’s especially nice because we then get to talk about both the origins of Movember and our current program when we talk to our customers and supporters. Have a great month!