Beards for a cause: Police growing facial hair to support Special Olympics

Posted 1/30/18

Officers are prohibited from growing beards and “each year a select few make a run on me requesting a change to that policy, and each year I respond with my concerns over beards in uniform,” Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt explained in a recent …

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Beards for a cause: Police growing facial hair to support Special Olympics

Posted

A half-dozen Powell Police officers are flagrantly violating the department’s uniform policy to start 2018 by growing beards.

But it’s all for a good cause — namely, to benefit local Special Olympics programs.

Officers are prohibited from growing beards and “each year a select few make a run on me requesting a change to that policy, and each year I respond with my concerns over beards in uniform,” Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt explained in a recent post on the department’s Facebook page. “This year they tried a new approach, and got me … at least temporarily.”

The new tactic taken by Sgt. Paul Sapp and Officer Matt Brilakis was to pitch beard-growing as an opportunity to raise money for Special Olympics — and “I’m a sucker for Special Olympics,” Eckerdt said.

Thus was born a fundraiser that the department is calling, “Donate to Insulate.”

From now until March 1, the officers will be allowed to keep growing their face-warming beards and — they’ll solicit donations for Special Olympics programs in Wyoming and Powell.

When that March deadline arrives, whoever has collected the least amount of money will be forced to shave. One officer will be required to go clean shaven with each successive day, in reverse order of the donations they’ve raised. Whichever officer raises the most amount of cash will get to keep his beard the longest, being the last to shave.

Officers had to kick in a $40 donation of their own to participate. Seven officers — Sgt. Matt McCaslin, officers Reece McLain, Kade Richmond, Trevor Carpenter, Sapp, Brilakis and Eckerdt himself — opted in.

While the chief is bending the rules for beards, his officers “still have to maintain a professional image,” he said. Beards can be no longer than an inch thick and — in a pre-emptive move — Eckerdt explicitly banned “decorations” on the facial hair.

To donate toward the effort and a particular officer’s beard, visit www.firstgiving.com/sowy/powell-pd-donate-to-insulate.

Officer McLain was leading with $325 raised on Monday.

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