Tank's Moustache March Blog

Some of the crew at the Moustache March Blazer Game

Wow, I truly don’t know where this month went. I blinked and it is almost over, dang day job getting in the way of Moustache March Magic.

The following Press Release went out to local news outlets in the Portland/Vancouver area today. I just checked and we are now at:

 $12,819.48 There’s still time left, keep raising!

News Release from: Clark Co. Sheriff’s Office
CLARK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE INVITES COMMUNITY TO GROW TOGETHER
Posted: March 29th, 2012 4:34 PM

#######UPDATE###########

With only two days to go, Moustache March has officially passed the record for donations to the American Cancer Society set last year.  In 2011 deputies and citizens grew together raising $11,145.00.  As 3/29/12 $12,015.01 has been raised for the American Cancer Society!  Sgt Shane Gardner of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office says “In three years now we have raised over $25,000.00 for a cause that benefits everyone from child to adult, across all socio-economic levels.  Our organization has been directly effected by Cancer and we participate in this annual event to fight back against this indiscriminate disease.”
About 60 Deputies and their family members attended the March 22nd Trailblazer game (against the Grizzlies ironically) and many shaved off their moustaches on the concourse before the game to draw attention to the event.

On April 2nd at 11:00 AM at Clark County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters, notable moustaches like those sported by Sheriff Lucas, Sergeants Trimble and Neiman (who have each had their moustaches for over 31 years), and a few others will come off under the skilled hands of “Big Rick” from Bernie and Rollies Barber Shop.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the more than 90 participants of Moustache March would like to thank the media, Burgerville USA, Bernie and Rollies Barber Shop, Starbucks, and the Portland Trailblazers for helping make this another great success…
It’s not to late to contribute…
http://community.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=41637&pg=entry

You can visit www.Moustachemarch.com for more information.

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It’s that time of year again:  March!  This is the time of year we all put our egos aside and either shave what we normally sport, or grow what we normally keep short.  MOUSTACHE MARCH!

This year we are offering bragging rights to the winners of several categories including: Clean Starters, Early Growers, The Ladies, The Fakers, Year-Rounders, and The Lil Ones.  As it has been for the last two years, all donations raised will go directly to the American Cancer Society.

Last year Deputy Jim Orr grew with us and attended our Shave off on April 1st.  On August 2, just four months later, he lost his battle with Melanoma Cancer.  He is one of the many reasons we are trying to make a difference.

Cancer touches us all in some way or another.  This is our way of fighting it; raising money for research to find a cure.

This year the American Cancer Society has created a website just for our fundraiser like they have for “Race for a Cure” access it below.

http://community.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=41637&pg=entry

March 22nd will be Law Enforcement/Fire Fighter/Moustache March night at the Rose Garden.  WWW.Moustachemarch.com will have a Kiosk on the concourse where they will “Shave the Day”.

This event is open to anyone from the community who wishes to join in.  Shaving (or growing) is not mandatory, it’s about having fun making a difference.

Contact Info: Sergeant Shane Gardner
Community Outreach Sergeant
Clark County Sheriff’s Office
(360) 607-1558 (cell)
shane.gardner@clark.wa.gov

If you have any questions, concerns, comments or answers please let us know!

live the ‘stache,

Nate “Tank” Heath

The most disappointing thing I hear when asking people about participating in Moustache March is either, “My lady won’t let me have a moustache” or “I am not letting my guy have a moustache.” Mind you, I am very fortunate in this department, I started dating my lucky lady in January so very early on she was able to experience the magic of Moustache March. She was slightly hesitant at first, but embraced it quickly. This year I asked her to write something to the other ladies out there who might have some reservations about the most wonderful month of the year, read on:

Why You Should ‘Let’ Your Man do Moustache March

1. It’s harmless fun
2. It will repel all other women
3. You’ll be considered a ‘cool wife’
4. Once it gets past the stubble stage, it won’t hurt you when you kiss him
5. It’s entertaining all month long
6. He can raise money for a great cause, the American Cancer Society
7. You’ll appreciate him all the more come April

I am not sure about number 2 on the list, but hopefully her words might persuade a few of you ladies to “let” your men join in this year.

Another note, being the loving husband that I am, I have always offered that my wife could have her month of fun with “Armpit Hair April.” And I am also a big fan of any woman that participates in Moustache March with us.

So I have no problem sharing the fact that I am a big fan of Justin Bieber. He is talented, you cannot deny it.  So I got pretty excited when I was looking on twitter and found the following…

Apparently his 17th birthday on March 1st inspired him to join the world of the moustached. I think that he really wanted to increase his male 18-88 demographic. But I am more excited that his nearly 8 million followers are now aware of Moustache March.

If you would like to try see what Bieber looks like with a ‘stache (as I did to the right) head on over to the Justin Bieber Mustache Builder and enjoy.

What a wonderful day this first day of March is! Twitter and Facebook are alive with moustache talk.  I wish that I could post to the blog with every thought/experience I have during the month but a lot of the time I get bogged down with the logistics behind the scenes.

That is why I am putting out to you to help make this blog what it should be.  If you have something to say about Moustache March, whether it be an event, a personal experience or just some general opinion, I would love to get it up on the blog. (I would especially love some of our women supporters to share their support)

If you are interested head on over to the Moustache March Contact Page and send me a note letting me know what you would like to talk about.

Well Moustache March is just around the corner and I don’t know about you but I am getting excited.  I was actually out of commission for a while with some lovely kidney stones (Actually a huge misnomer, they should be called Kidney/Ureter Jagged Crystal Destroyers), I wouldn’t wish them on Moustache March haters.

Anyways the new shirts are on order and I am really excited about the two designs:

1. Kiss Me I’m Moustache Shirt – The idea actually came from lifetime member Raymond Baehler.  A perfect mix of Moustache March and St. Patty’s Day.  Head on over to the store and get yours ordered.

2. Moustache is not a Crime – A play on the classic shirt that did wonders for skateboarding.  We need to make the moustache alright with everyone. Head on over to the store and get yours ordered.

The store also went through a major update and we are restocked on some of the other shirts including XL and XXL for the girl’s shirts.  Those things run really small.

You might also notice the blog looks a little different.  It has been moved to WordPress which works really great.

The new website is also getting close and should be up in a few days.

Thanks and live the ‘stache!

I constantly get questions about what Moustache March is, why we do it, etc. Well in the past I wrote a F.A.Q on the website that you can find here. But I thought I would write a little more here to help people understand.

The question I probably get most often is, “how can I get involved?” What a loaded question! One thing that we are trying to do this year is have our site be the spot where you can find all the different groups that are doing activities during the month. I hear all the time about different events happening and am hoping to connect people up to honor the ‘stache.

Which brings me to my next thing, honoring the ‘stache. That is our most important mission. There are a lot of groups out there that think you need to be clean shaven at the beginning of March, but my problem with that is that I would only have a moustache for the last few days of the month. So I started in October so that I would have a showing that would truly honor all that is the moustache.

The other big dilemma is the Moustache vs. Mustache debate. When we started we didn’t even think about it, we went with the moustache spelling because it is more traditional and the World Beard and Moustache Championships spell it that way. There is a great site at www.mustachemarch.com, the only problem is I haven’t heard anything from them since 2005 and it seems that they have given up, sad. I do support both spellings because it just makes sense.

So after my rambling here is a summary of what we want you to do to get involved:

• Grow a moustache, duh!
• Go to www.moustachemarch.com look around get motivated and get involved
• Take pictures, make videos, make music and get it online. Send it to us and make it fun. Whether it’s you by yourself in front of a mirror or 100 moustaches taking on the white house just do it.
• Network! Get people involved, get involved with events, motivate people, entertain people.
• Go to www.moustachestore.com and buy some stuff!
• While at the store become a lifetime member and show your support.
• Join the mailing list on the site so you know what is going on.

I am a little late on getting this news to you but I have just been bogged down with my fortune and fame. I am so bogged down I am just posting what I sent out to all the members of the Moustache March Mailing List. What’s that you say? You’re not on the mailing list? Well get on it now. Any ways on to the good stuff:

Yesterday I was on the local news for the American Cancer Society event. “Out and About” with Drew Carney did several segments for the 5-7am news. They actually posted most of the video here. You will also notice they used my mermaid picture for the link to the article here.

My true moment of glory, along with my dog’s, didn’t make the website cut, so I posted a poor video of my TV copy on youtube here.

I am really excited to attend the celebration event tonight with the ACS crew. Should be good times and hopefully I can score some sweet prizes and get my ‘stache shaved by a proffessional barber!

Sorry for all the heres here…

For those of you in the know, you will realize this is a picture of me next to a poster from the hottest thing from Broadway, Wicked. Each March I like to take in some theater, last year it was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Several months ago my wife was proactive and secured us some seats for Wicked‘s limited engagement in Portland. I think all of the shows have since sold out.

Now for those of you that have no clue what I am talking about, Wicked is the story of Oz from the Wicked Witch of the West’s perspective. Now this is a musical, but I happen to be fond of the genre, yes I enjoyed Evita. It actually is a pretty fun story and a pretty entertaining show. Makes you take a good look at the perspectives you have in your own life.

So for all of you that think my March is only filled with beer, babes, bars and ‘staches, maybe this will show you that there can be, and is more to Moustache March.

I was contacted in late February about a new Moustache Wax in the game, Hndlebars Moustache Wax. They like what we are doing for the Moustache at MoustacheMarch.com and sent over a sample of their product. I just got to the point this week where I needed some Moustache management and decided to give it a go. It comes in two containers, a classic tin or the chapstick style travel tube.

The instructions included said that it was best to ‘warm’ the wax first either in your pocket or in some warm water. When I opened the product I realized this is a very good suggestion since it is a pretty firm wax. So I warmed up the tin and gave it a go. So far so good. Due to it’s very firm consistency it is ready to go the long haul. It works into the Moustache well and with a good brushing I was ready to go.

I had just trimmed my ‘stache and got several comments on how nice it looked, mostly due to the fact that the Hndlbars kept my wild ‘stache under control all day. Hndlbars is made on the east coast and definitely has a hard east coast feel to it. The wax that I used last year was a small town west coast wax and was definitely a lot softer.

On their site they have some links to some great handlebar clubs, etc. so it is definitely worth a visit!

They have some good March-madness deals going on in their online store so I suggest you head on over and pick some up!

Check back later in the month when I get a true Handlebar going and can give this wax a true test.

So it is no secret the economy is not real strong at the moment. In my opinion, it all boils down to everyone being greedy and making poor money decisions. Now I am not exempt from this (see last post), but I am doing my part to help. I am hearing about some “Stimulus Package” that I don’t think I will get a penny of. While the government is paying out insane amounts of money to people that make insane amounts of money and have given insane amounts of money to people that couldn’t payback those insane amounts of money, I have a plan…

See in the past for Moustache March we have had shirts and said shirts were sometimes $12, sometimes even $15. But desperate times call for desperate measures. So I decided to make sure this year that didn’t lack in amazingness, but did lack in cost. Yeah that’s right, when is the last time you only had to pay $8 for a new and exciting tshirt? And better yet, when is the last time you could get a new, albeit last year’s design, shirt for only $6?

So while we suffer through these tough times, I thought I would do a little something to let you splurge on a tight budget. So head on over to the MoustacheMarch.com official store and pick up a shirt or two and some other reasonably priced good stuff.

Side note, when I was discussing this blog post with my wife she asked why this wasn’t a bailout plan for us…well to be honest I didn’t think that was the right thing to do…I mean I have made a habit of pooring too much money into Moustache March over the last several years and, if I know anything, now is not a time for change.