Mustaches raise money for food bank

After weeks of letting nature take its course, Southwest Ambulance employee Jeff Fuller took home the trophy for Best Overall Mustache Wednesday at Fire Station 574.

The contest benefited local food bank F.O.R. Maricopa. 

The paramedics and firefighters competed to take home trophies – handcrafted by firefighter Dusty Jenkins and his wife, Chelsea – in three other categories: Best Fu Manchu, Better Luck Next Year and Most Creative.

Each contender paid a $20 entry fee, though some fire department and Southwest Ambulance employees donated the cash without sprouting a ‘stache.

The nine who did, however, did whatever they could to win. 

Before the contest could begin, however, the three “celebrity” judges – Maricopa Unified School District Board member Torri Anderson, Wendy Webb, executive director of F.O.R. Maricopa and Jaclyn Aarons-Cooke, with the city’s economic development department – laid their hands on a plastic shaving razor and swore to “judge without bias the ultimate follicle creativity” of the men.

Some men came in with a theme, like fireman David Maas’ cowboy motif. Others shamelessly showered compliments on the judges as they left the room and, at one point, a cash bribe of $1 per judge was blatantly attempted. 

After a brief conference, the judges made their decision. 

Jenkins took home the prize for Most Creative (he even grew a mustache on the side of his otherwise bald head); David Maas won for Best Fu Manchu; and Jon Sheaffer took home a trophy that wished him Better Luck Next Year.

Webb was then given the more than $300 the event raised. 

Maricopa Fire Department spokesman Brad Pitassi promised the contest would be even bigger and better next year.