More than a dozen faculty and staff from the Department of Mechanical Engineering participated in this year’s 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.” National organizations participating in this year’s campaign include the American Cancer Society, Prevent Cancer Foundation, Fight Colorectal Cancer, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The effort for ISU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering was spearheaded by associate professor Cris Schwartz. “I don’t know if there is anyone in ME, or in general, who has not been affected by cancer either personally or via a sick family member,” he said. “This is something that all of us can relate to. I also felt like the staff and faculty that we have in the department are very good people and also very fun people. This was an opportunity to do something as a team that I don’t know if any of us would have thought to do on our own. The fact that we raised money and had some friendly competition made it very worthwhile for me.” Collectively the 14 department participants raised $1,269 to combat the disease that claims about 22,000 lives worldwide each day. For Schwartz and several others, this was their first time participating. “I have never done this in the past, but I have known others who have. In fact, I don’t think I’ve gone without shaving this long since I was twenty years old. With the amount of grey in my beard, it is immediately obvious that things have changed since then,” he said. While this year’s event only included faculty and staff from ME, Schwartz said he would eventually like to include students too. “I would absolutely consider getting students involved in the future. I can imagine having different ME teams who can compete for most funds raised. The nice thing about the No-Shave November program is that it is not gender specific. Anyone can do it, and participate in any way that they see fit,” said Schwartz. “However, with the size of our enrollment in ME we may get a call from the companies that make razors telling us that their sales are dwindling.”
