The Archie Foundation

13 December 2017

Highland kids’ charity encourages follicle growth this festive season

The ARCHIE Foundation’s annual Beards for Bairns campaign is back again – and this year they’re asking people to Nominate a Mate and help raise money for the Highland Children’s Unit at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.

ARCHIE Highlands is asking supporters to nominate husbands, partners, brothers, dads, uncles, cousins and friends to grow a beard from Christmas Day until Burns Night on January 25th.

Fundraising Assistant Dawn Cowie said: ‘We’d love to get as many women and children involved as we can. They might not be able to grow their own beards, but they can enlist someone who can with our new Nominate a Mate campaign.’

‘This year’s flyer even has 12 styles of beard to help inspire you. You can tick the style that you’d like your nominee to grow. If they accept your nomination, we ask that you donate £10 to their fundraising efforts. If they turn you down, you can ask them to donate £10 to ARCHIE as a forfeit.

‘Once our participants have registered for Beards for Bairns, they can ask friends and family to sponsor their fuzzy face and raise as much as they can for ARCHIE Highlands between Christmas and Burns Night. We’ll keep our social media topped up with beard inspiration and motivation to keep you going.’

All the money raised by Beards for Bairns will go to The ARCHIE Foundation’s Fresh Air appeal, which is raising £100,000 to transform the outside play space and garden areas at the Highland Children’s Unit.

The project will ensure that children in the unit can play outside in all weathers, providing canopies that will offer shelter from the rain and sun. The entrance to the unit will be given the wow factor with a warm welcome in the form of a feature garden, the centrepiece of which will be a 30-foot topiary Nessie – a Highland icon fitting for an iconic unit.

Flyers for Beards for Bairns are being handed out at local schools so that children all over the Highlands and Islands can get involved by nominating their dads, brothers, uncles and family friends to grow a beard for a month and raise money for The ARCHIE Foundation.

Local businesses, sports teams and organisations can also take part in Beard Bingo – see how many of the 12 beard styles your group can tick off the chart – maybe if you manage all 12 your boss will doble your fundraising amount?

Dawn said: ‘Beard growing can get quite competitive- many of our teams enjoy it so much they now take part every year. It is wonderful that they choose to support The ARCHIE Foundation again and again. We’re looking forward to seeing these teams’ efforts once again, as well as signing up lots of new groups.’

To register, simply text ARCHIE to 70660 (standard network rates apply), visit www.beardsforbairns.org.uk or call 01382 496203

The flyers can be downloaded at www.beardsforbairns.org.uk or you can nominate a mate publicly by liking the Facebook page and sharing or tagging the Beards for Bairns posts @archiehighlands and don’t forget to share your progress on the page too, or on Instagram @thearchiefoundation and Twitter @ArchieHighlands with the hashtags #beardsforbairns #nominateamate #beardbingo