During November, the Vienna Police Department’s no-facial-hair policy has been relaxed to enable male officers to participate in the Zero Cancer Grow-and-Give fundraising campaign, town officials said.
For the third year in a row, Police Chief James Morris suspended the dress-code rule to enable officers to put down their razor during #NoShaveNovember. The goal of the bearded-officers’ 30-day fund-raising campaign is to raise public awareness of prostate cancer and to generate support for research to find a cure.
“One of our officers, Juan Vazquez, lost his father to prostate cancer a few years ago, and it is especially meaningful to him that we participate.” Morris said. “Last year, our small but mighty department took home first place and raised the highest amount of any public-safety organization in the country for the cancer charity – thanks to the generosity of our community.”
Nearly 250,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the U.S. this year, and the illness is very treatable if diagnosed early. Participating officers hope that as they start to look a little scruffy in their efforts to support life-saving research, others will be inspired to learn more about the illness and donate to the campaign to help find a cure for prostate cancer, Vienna officials said.
Last year, the Vienna Police Department exceeded its fundraising goal of $5,000. This year’s goal is to raise at least $6,500 for the non-profit organization.
For information on the initiative, see the Website at https://bit.ly/VPDGrowandGive2023.
