South River police grow beards for cancer awareness

SOUTH RIVER Putting down their clippers, trimmers and razors to raise cancer awareness, the South River Police Department is participating in “No-Shave November.”

“No-Shave November is a web-based, non-profit organization devoted to growing cancer awareness and raising funds to support cancer prevention, research and education. Participants are encouraged to put down their razors and donate the money used on shaving items towards a cancer charity of their choice. Our agency has chosen to support colorectal cancer,” Sgt. Edwin Yorek said.

This is the agency’s second year participating in the campaign.

“Our agency decided to participate in No-Shave November for several reasons. We believed that as an official police agency we would be able to raise a good amount of money to donate for colorectal cancer research, and other cancer research,” Yorek said.

The department fundraising goal this year is to raise $5,000.

“This is also a great opportunity for us to join the fight against cancer with residents of South River who have been personally affected by the disease or have friends and/or family members who are or have been affected. By growing out our beards, residents quickly notice the change of our usually clean shaven officers and we like that,” Yorek said.

This year, 28 officers are currently participating in the campaign, according to Yorek.

“Whether our officers notice residents looking at their beards and they begin to explain the reason for them, or a resident notices and asks about it … it’s a win-win situation for community policing and to reference the No-Shave November campaign for awareness and donations for a cure,” Yorek said.

For more information, visit www.no-shave.org.

To donate towards the campaign visit www.no-shave.org/org/SRPD.

Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].