Creative Commons photo
By Leah Loridas, For The Miami Student
For the third year in a row, students across Miami's campus are participating in No-Shave November. While some may think this is just for personal entertainment, or embarrassment, there is actually a point to the presence of more facial hair enveloping campus. The men of Miami are supporting breast cancer awareness and fundraising.
By selling T-shirts, encouraging men to grow out their facial hair and holding events around campus, Beards for Boobs raises awareness and money for breast cancer organizations. Beards for Boobs is a charity group started at Miami.
This year, the organization is bigger than ever and has raised significantly more money than in the past.
Junior Alex Belman is the president of Beards for Boobs. His team includes Kenny Ness, Will Dimas and Conor Flynn. These four friends began the organization out of Wells Hall in 2012 in honor of Belman's grandmother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and beat it.
During its inaugural year, the group earned $2,500. By Belman's sophomore year, they had earned $12,000 to date, and this year alone, Beards for Boobs has already earned $14,500.
Belman decided to take a big step to spread the word about Beards for Boobs this year - he invited three other campuses to the campaign. The University of Missouri, Denison University and the University of Delaware joined the fight to spread awareness, which instantly expanded participation in Beards for Boobs.
Belman said improving the publicity through other campuses, rather than just the Miami campus, has helped spread the word and raise more money.
"We have definitely been trying to use social media more and more," Belman said. "It is so easy to broadcast your message."
He added that using social media and making connections, like knowing people from other campuses, are two of the main factors in publicizing Beards for Boobs.
Flynn, treasurer of the organization, agreed the publicity has increased drastically.
"Our publicity has grown from several dozen people in the fall of 2012, to 1,049 likes on our Facebook page today," Flynn said. "We used mostly word of mouth back in 2012. Now, we use a combination of Facebook and directly reaching out to fraternities and sororities via email."
Other than social media, word of mouth and spreading awareness on campus, Belman attributed the group's success to another student population - Greek life.
"[Members of Greek life] have been ready to get involved and ready to be involved," Belman said.
Flynn added he and his team have "grown up" as well, accelerating the success of Beards for Boobs.
"We have brought on members from different parts of the Greek community this year which really helps with our outreach," Flynn said.
He said Greeks have helped and supported the entire charity group since the start of the organization.
"All of Greek life has contributed," he said.
Beards for Boobs has maintained the constant message of breast cancer awareness, but it has changed the recipients of its donations in the past years.
"In the past we used to only donate to Stefanie Spielman out of Ohio State University who focuses on research rather than awareness," Belman said.
Now, Beards for Boobs donates equally between Spielman and the Susan G. Komen foundation, another organization determined to fight breast cancer.
In order to publicize and raise more money for Beards for Boobs this year, Belman and his team recently held an event at The Woods bar Uptown. By selling Beards for Boobs cups, the charity group brought in $1,500 through this event.
Belman said they hope to bring in more donations by holding another event at Skippers Nov. 18 to spread the word about breast cancer by selling stickers.
As the group continues to thrive at Miami and spread across other college campuses, so does the awareness of breast cancer. Through social media, publicity events and both on and off-campus organizations, Beards for Boobs is successfully expanding.