KAILUA-KONA — Firefighters outside of North Kohala just don’t grow them like they used to — mustaches, that is.
Much of the Hawaii County Fire Department took part in the fourth annual “Movember” Mustache Dinner Saturday night at Daylight Mind Coffee Company in Kailua-Kona, a private fundraising effort preceded by a month-long contest of machismo to see which of them could grow the most illustrious lip sweater.
Some of the participants got an earlier start, while others began growing facial hair on Nov. 1 — a decision largely based on spousal tolerance for mouth brows.
Concurrently, the mustachioed HFD raised awareness about prostate cancer along with money for charity. And they had a pretty good time doing it, too.
“It’s to raise some money and also for our families in our department to connect,” said Kyle Teves, a fire medical specialist 2, who organized the dinner. “The camaraderie we have, it’s just good to keep that brotherhood going. A lot of times we’re caught up in work, and because we work 24-hour shifts, we don’t get to necessarily see or hang out with other firefighters.”
For the second year in a row, it was a member of what is quickly becoming the HFD’s most manly outpost — North Kohala’s Station 15 — who won the crown, leaving the rest of the island’s firefighters to grumble about likely favoritism or possible contest rigging through the food crumbs stored in the man bristle above their upper lips.
And the prize for top stache was nothing to sneeze at, either.
“The winner also gets a perpetual trophy and a bottle of whiskey,” Teves said. “You know, because it’s a mustache contest.”
Following in the footsteps of his colleague Jeff Maki, 31-year-old rookie firefighter Kekoa Eskaran claimed the title “Stache King” of Hawaii Island — as his peers voted his pushbroom the most prolific and testosterone-soaked of them all.
“I was super surprised,” the King said. “I wasn’t expecting to go in and win it, but hey, they treat the rookies like veteran firefighters. They show a lot of love.”
The brotherhood both Teves and Eskaran referenced was also present in the choice of charity, the Greg Cameron Fireman’s Fund, for which the roughly 120 HFD members and their families in attendance raised around $1,500.
The fund, in its fifth year of existence, is a nonprofit dedicated to the memory of long-time paramedic and rescueman Greg Cameron, who died of colon cancer in 2012 at the age of 52.
Kainoa Willey, a 10-year veteran of the HFD and a board member of the fund, said its purpose is to provide financial assistance to any member of the department dealing with injury, illness or other complication requiring monetary relief.
The fund was created in 2012 at Cameron’s behest.
“Greg was just so stoked on the outpouring of support he got from guys in the department and the community and everything,” Willey said. “He wanted to set up something that would give anyone else in the department the same support he got when he was battling cancer.”
The choice of the fund as the event’s target charity for the second consecutive year is a tribute to the will and character of the friend and colleague HFD members lost more than four years ago.
“They gave him six months to live,” Willey said. “He basically told them, ‘No, you’re wrong.’ Four years later, he finally succumbed to the cancer, but he really had a fighting spirit and actually was working up until about three months before he passed away. He was just a really tough guy.”
Most of the money raised for the fund at the Movember Mustache Dinner in 2015 went to another firefighter who displayed an uncommon level of toughness — Yurik Resetnikov, Teves’ brother, who was paralyzed from the chest down in October of 2015 after a bodysurfing accident at Sandy Beach on Oahu.
Resetnikov attended the dinner and drinks portion of the evening at Daylight Mind on Saturday before flying to Colorado for surgery.
The Greg Cameron Fireman’s Fund also hosts an annual golf and run/swim event weekend every summer. Any members of the public who would like more information on the fund or wish to donate can visit tgcff.org.
As for the Movember Mustache Dinner, HFD members have another 12 months to simmer in envy and plot some way to dethrone the Stache Kings of Kohala at Station 15, who will seek their third consecutive title in 2017, along with even more money for both a manly and worthy cause.