If you think about it, facial hair may seem like it has nothing to do with charity. Andrew Dudek is the founder and president of the Beard and Mustache Club of North Carolina. The club holds fundraisers and competitions to raise money for charities and non-profit organizations. Radio Camper Hallie Springer talked with Dudek to learn more.

 
I met Andrew Dudek when he walked into the courtyard at Wake Forest. The first thing that I noticed was his wild beard. We found a quiet place to talk and I asked him why he decided to start his Beard and Mustache Club.
 
I started the Beard and Mustache Club of North Carolina to just have a community of men – and women, actually – who wanted to band together and just have an organization that would do something different. We didn't know what we wanted to do to begin with, so at the inception of it, really we just wanted to get together and see what we could do with the club. It evolved into a charity fundraising organization. 

 

Andrew told me about his two and a half year old daughter, Opal, his old record store, and that the club mascot is a skull with a gnarly beard named Rooster. We then started talking about how the Beard and Mustache Club helped the Greensboro area. Here he talks about how the club became a charitable organization.
 
That year that it started, I was just looking for things to do. Maybe at the beginning, I thought that Beard Club could be a job where I could get paid,  but then after doing it more and more, I realized that I didn't want that to be the case. I wanted it to be a charity organization. We definitely are interested in being a non-profit, 501(c)(3). 

 

While he works hard to give back to the community, Andrew also drove to and from the Arctic Circle on motorcycle for a beard and mustache competition. The whole trip took six weeks to complete. There are two locations of his Beard and Mustache Club in North Carolina. They are in Greensboro and Charlotte. If you want to find out more about this club you can go to bmcofnc.com. For 88.5WFDD Radio Camp I'm Hallie Springer. 

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