The rather unusual and slightly unnerving sight of usually manly bearded men walking around with only half of a beard may become a usual sight for a short while. And you can thank a team called BeardsOn for Conservation, an 'Aussie' based charity, that are calling all bearded men to grow out their face fuzz and then chop away at only half of it to help shock,I mean raise awareness about the ongoing problem of worldwide deforestation.
The founder of BeardsOn, James Stanton-Cooke claimed ''We are like 'Movember but for the environment!' when talking to the local press. Mr Cooke went onto say they are far from being a charity for ''greenie hipsters", BeardsOn has attracted volunteers from every walk of life, and continues to grow (no pun intended!) in popularity through the power of social media and the internet.
"We have one family group who have three generations represented this year, a grandfather, son, and grandson. The community response has been absolutely amazing!"
Participants are asked to grow their beards over the course of a 90 day window, then when the 90 days are over they axe away at their newfound face forest, but only chop off half of it, this is said to serve as a representation to the 48 percent of the world's forests that have already been destroyed, and sadly there will be more to follow unless we take immediate action.
Mr James Stanton-Cooke is anticipating a much larger amount of interest this year in comparison to previous years, and with the power of social media we think his assumptions might be spot on!
For every $2 Australian dollars that is raised, the 'BeardsOn' foundation plants a new tree. With a hopping $35,000 already in the kitty so far that totals to around 17,000 new trees that will be planted this year alone. Mr Cooke has his target set and is aiming to meet around 70,000 trees if possible.
This is the fourth year the 'BeardsOn' organisation has been in swing, with 11,000 trees planted from the Daintree in North Queensland, Australia right down to Tasmania.
By the end of fundraising this year, Mr Cooke hopes for around 40 half bearded gents will be walking the streets of Sydney with their new, rather freaky half beards on full display for the world to see.
Cooke went on to say - "People always come up to us and ask us 'What is this about?', often they are really interested in becoming involved when they hear what we have to say to them"
BeardsOn for Conservation are ready to continue on forward with their good cause, aiming to have planted a staggering 40 million trees by the year of 2040, and the good folks of 'The Beard Struggle' would like to wish them every success in doing so in the process.
And until next time, Beard on Brothers, Beard on...
