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 Nov. 26 at Daylight Mind Coffee Company in Kailua-Kona, a private fundraising effort preceded by a monthlong 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 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 consecutive year, it was a member of what is quickly becoming the HFD’s most manly outpost — North Kohala’s Station 15 — who won the crown.
“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 push broom 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 Teves and Eskaran referenced also was 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 about $1,500.
The fund, in its fifth year of existence, is a nonprofit dedicated to the memory of longtime 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.”
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 2015 after a bodysurfing accident at Sandy Beach on Oahu.
Resetnikov attended the dinner and drinks portion of the evening at Daylight Mind before flying to Colorado for surgery.
The Greg Cameron Fireman’s Fund also hosts an annual golf and run/swim event weekend every summer. Anyone who would like more information about the fund or want 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 a manly and worthy cause.
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
