‘No Shave’ to save lives

Whe Rev. Jeff St. Claire will do anything for a cause – even trade his clean-shaven face for a long, fuzzy beard. St. Claire, associate pastor of Mandarin United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., wanted to raise awareness and money for the Imagine No Malaria campaign.

In November 2014, he got the idea of “No Shave” while listening to Matt Lauer and Al Roker from the “Today” show talk about not shaving to help raise money for cancer research. “So I decided to let my hair and beard grow for the entire month of January,” he said.

The church held a “No Shave” fundraiser. St. Claire and 14 other men chose to let their hair or beards grow. St. Claire’s wife, Jennifer, feared her clean-shaven husband would look like the “Duck Dynasty” crew. “Can you go ahead and shave your beard now?” she asked her husband the last week of January. He replied that there were only a few more days to go. Nevertheless, Jennifer said she is very proud of her husband because of his deep commitment to help others and their causes.

St. Claire’s passion to reach out to others led him to chair the Imagine No Malaria steering committee for the Florida Annual Conference. He speaks at various events about the importance of raising money to save lives in Africa by providing people with insecticide-treated bed nets. He distributes brochures and pledge cards and gives people an option to contribute online.

Mandarin United Methodist Church raised more than $1,000 for the Imagine No Malaria campaign. Their contribution enabled 100 families to have bed nets.

AT A GLANCE
Mandarin United Methodist Church
11270 San Jose Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32223
904-268-5549
scurts@mumc.net
www.mumc.net
Pastor: Rev. Deborah A. McLeod
Average Attendance: 1,121
Florida Conference