Mantua Police raises money for charity during ‘Movember,’ officers compete to creatively show their beards
This year, the Mantua Township Police Department’s charity of choice is a little more personal.
By KRYSTAL NURSE
The Sun
The Mantua Township Police Department has been raising money every November since 2014, as part of the larger Movember campaign, to donate to a charity. During the month, the department holds an internal competition where officers show off their beards in comical ways.
Reigning champ Ptl. Jason Lipsett has been invested in the yearly in-house competition in the past years and said it brewed up some creative pictures from the officers. As the month closes, Lipsett clings tightly to his trophy in hopes of retaining his title after three years.
Every month, officers donate $20 to be allowed to don the beards for November. The campaign raises awareness and funds for various issues surrounding men’s health, such as prostate and testicular cancers, mental health and suicide prevention, according to the Movember Foundation.
At the time of publication, the winner of the department’s competition had not been announced. On its Facebook page, the department said Lipsett unfortunately was disqualified for coming into the month with a beard.
“It started with a handful of us, I think in 2014, where five of us, and then [2015] we had more people do it with entries,” said Lipsett. “There were a lot of Photoshopped stuff with people putting themselves in movies and that kind of stuff. [2016] was even bigger with more and that’s when I did the calendar.”
Lt. Jeff Ferry said Lipsett’s calendar was a hit with everyone as they thought he was doing one photo and they came across a full 12-month spread of Lipsett with his beard.
“The way he won was that he did a whole calendar,” said Ferry. “He didn’t do just one picture, he did a whole calendar!”
Lipsett was the lone champion last year as no one else put in an entry to the friendly competition as “they were afraid [he] was going to do the calendar again.” “This year, I said I was stepping down and help decide a new winner,” he added. “After four years in a row, I’m going to retire undefeated.”
He remembers one year Ptl. Jeff Krieger did a “Reno 911,” a popular police comedy show on Comedy Central, theme, but Lipsett managed to beat him. The officers will be bare-faced following the conclusion of the campaign. Lipsett said he’s looking forward to seeing the entries.
The department is pledging the $1,000 raised to the American Cancer Society for Renal Cancer after an unidentified officer was personally affected by the cancer.
“Obviously as a police department, we’re very community-oriented with our Coffee with a Cop events, so we’re always looking for opportunities to give back in anyway that we can, whether it’s on a big scale or small scale,” said Lipsett. “Anything we can do to give back to the community, because they’re the ones that support us in the long-run. So it feels good.”
