Rosstache 2008 - The Burt Reynolds Club

Photos, photos, photos . . .

2008-04-05T20:18:00.005-04:00

What you all came to see. . . here's links to some photos as taken by our head photographer Vicky Escrojin

Rosstache 2008 Finals, Vicky Escrojin

Fei Xu's Rosstache 2008 photos

The week before the finals. . .

Cleanshaven Photos - March 6th

Total Donations Received Per Person as of Apr 3rd

Some photos of the trophies and Edge Shave Gel from the event as well as crowd shots and a parting shot from the Stachetrust!

Thank you to all who came out last night!

2008-04-04T19:27:00.003-04:00

As you all know from the +$8000 in donations we gathered for Orchards Children's Services, last night's event was an amazing success. Thank you to all who helped, the money that was raised, and a great event for a great charity!

T-shirts are still available for $12, please e-mail me at sfbrown at umich. We still have at least one in each size (especially Small) but not many more than that.

Photos are already hitting Facebook, official photos from our lovely photographer Vicky Escrojin will be coming tomorrow! We'll post some key pictures in the next few days . . .

The winners were. . .
Top Donations Received: Josh Nothwang
2nd most donations: Joe Digoroliamo
3rd most donations: Bryan McCoy
4th most donations: Mike Blais

Best Village People Person - NO ONE
Best Porn Star - Mike Elzahr
Best Redneck - Mark Link
Best TV / Movie - Nick Proia
Best Blonde / Red Moustache - Dave Giannino
Absentia - Grant Summers
Woman of Rosstache - Purvi Ravani
Best Creepy - Brian Harley
All Other - Ambra Heard & Nate Bosco
Lazy Stache - Vivek Gadiraju

Best Prepubescent - Tony Ouyang

Best Average Joe - Nate Troup

Best Caveman - Chris Hart

Best in Show - Bryan McCoy

Check out Contestant Photos!

2008-04-02T15:18:00.003-04:00

With only a day left in Rosstache, things are really heating up. Between great photos from the Women of Rosstache, nice absentia photos, a great challenge bid (sorry Sergio, you're just about done), and the actual finale tomorrow night at Scorekeepers, Rosstache is going amazingly well. The biggest thing of course is the money we have been able to raise. . . tomorrow we will release the grand total, which of course is still changing every few minutes from generous donations from people like you! Support Orchards Children's Services and your favorite moustached man!

Click the photo or this link to visit the contestant photos to see more shots! And keep those donations rolling in through the PayPal site!

Since we have nothing else of value to say today. . .

2008-04-01T23:19:00.004-04:00

Other than keep those donations in, those upper lips hairy and those gray cells whirring to figure out what you are planning on wearing for the finals on April 3rd, here's a picture of a cat with a moustache.

Also for your viewing pleasure . . .

Thanks to Kati Prause and Nick Proia for the media!

Rosstache Week is Heating Up!

2008-03-31T13:04:00.005-04:00

With nary three days to go, the many beards and other concoctions created by the men of Ross are being cut down to moustaches by tomorrow. Stachians, you must be down to any combination of a moustache, fu man chu, soul patch, and/or sideburns, your hair may NOT connect below the lip.

Photos are being uploaded to the contest website, if yours is not there or you wish to have one added/changed please email

T-shirts are still for sale, stop in the b-school lounge between 11am and 2pm Monday thru Wednesday to buy one, if you are unable to do so please email sfbrown .

We are almost there men, stay strong! Keep pushing for donations to the PayPal site or in the lounge!

Rosstache Represents at SVCIC Competition

2008-03-29T18:32:00.004-04:00

Two of the brothers of the stache, Vikram Vaiysha and Andy Davis stepped up bigtime and with their team won 2nd place in the SVCIC (Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition). They were the only people in the entire competition with hair on their faces, yet they stayed strong, did not pick up the razor and kept their faces unshorn throughout. Viva la beard!

Random photos from Happy Hour

2008-03-29T17:37:00.004-04:00

McCoy, Proia, Brown and Heidel

Giannino and Erbstein

a non-hairy Dishlip, Silverman and LeBeau

Pictures of Rosstache Past for Inspiration

2008-03-26T12:06:00.004-04:00

Many have asked "What should I do?" or "How should I dress?" We are all wrestling with these questions, and figuring out the best option for your particular face is far from easy. But what you can do is view the blogs from last year as follows . . .

2007 home

2007 Contestant Photos

2006 home

As always, email with any questions and go to the PayPal site to donate!

Updates on upcoming events

2008-03-26T12:04:00.002-04:00

Hello Rosstachians,

Its coming time to shave those beards into cookie dusters and bring in Rosstache Week! So, here are a few things you should know (and answers to some questions I have been getting):

This Thursday, 3/27, at RSA Happy Hour (7-9)

This Thursday is the kickoff of Rosstache Week! We would like those of you who can make it to Happy Hour on Thursday to shave something fun into your beards. Last year I did some mean chops, but this year I’ll be doing something a little different – We’ll post some sample pics to the blog to give you some ideas. The main purpose is to raise awareness for Rosstache Week. We will be taking pictures to post and send out in promotional emails. You don’t need to keep your crazy look, but you have to keep at least your mustache, of course.

Shave to the ‘stache

You MUST be down to just the mustache by Tuesday, April 1^st. This year we will allow the Fu Manchu and soul patch.

T-shirts

T-shirts will be available during happy hour this Thursday, 3/27. Don’t worry if you didn’t tell us you wanted one… we got extras.

Next Thursday, 4/3, at RSA Happy Hour (7-9): JUDGING

We will be sending out more information about the final event this Friday. However, we will be asking people to sign up for different categories (e.g. Cop Stache). We are asking you to sign up in advance so that we don’t have everyone doing one category. We will also be giving out trophies for best stache in every category and money raisers (the trophies are pretty cool and it is the first year Rosstache has them – think collectors items). Outfit/costume/look counts for these awards (except the money) so do your best to look your funniest, best, or worse.

Fundraising

We have over $650 of personal donations so far… good work! Keep it coming… we still have a lot of work to do. Below is the link you can send to friends, family, etc. that will bring them to the site with the directions for donating. Also, if you would like to get an employer to donate or if it is a donation of serious size you can email us for instructions for making sure the donation is tax deductible. Using the fact that some companies match donations is a good way to get a good size check.

‘Stache on!!

-Chris and your faithful Rosstache leaders

Amit's story of courage

2008-03-26T12:01:00.002-04:00

In a recent e-mail we published the story of an amazing MBA, Amit Nagpal.

His first e-mail to the Stachetrust was in reference to a second lunch meeting with a potential hiring company. The reply was to suggest that he shave if it was for a job, that we would all understand. But the following is this man’s reply.

Just to let you know, I didn't shave it off.
Instead I wrote an email before explaining my love for Rosstache and it's philanthropic goals. Although it wasn't for full-time, as it was a start-up company, I believe the growth indicated maturity and the speckled gray hairs represented wisdom.

He gave me some contract consulting work for the next month and a good hourly rate.
Score one for Rosstache.

Hairy & Employed,

Amit

Great Men Wear Moustaches

2008-03-25T10:39:00.005-04:00

Many a great man has worn moustaches through history: Albert Einstein, Keith Hernandez, Geraldo . . .the list goes on and on. In some cases, all of the greats have had moustaches, such as in NASCAR. Randy Johnson would not have been as intimidating without his magnificent lip broom. Yes, in some rare cases a man with a moustache goes too far (including others that do not need to be mentioned) but we the men of Rosstache know that a moustache is a true sign of virility and we are proud to grow them for the Ross community, Ann Arbor and even the world (our honorable MAP Stachians).

As such, we announce that we will have an award titled "Best Moustache in Absentia." There are multiple cases of men who want to grow a great stache and support Orchards Children's Services, but some are overseas/abroad or heading to the MBA Games and unable to attend the finals. So if you are unable to make the contest, what we will do is accept photos up until Wednesday at Noon (REVISED since first post) to be posted shortly after to the blog. Send your best moustache photo to REMOVED, we will judge the submissions and announce the winner at the finals as well as by e-mail the next day. The same $15 minimum rule on donations for those being judged in person will follow for these men in absentia as well, but of course the more you raise the better!

A True Sign of Dedication - Picture of the Day

2008-03-24T16:18:00.003-04:00

One of our Stachians had a wedding this weekend, in which his wife was a bridesmaid. Did he shave off his facial hair? Did he even turn it into a goatee?
Nope, he kept his beard, so Dan "The Bridesmaid" Gesser has earned "'Photo of the Day" status. Support this man and donate to the cause!

The First Challenge Bet - Sergio Laprade-Velasco

2008-03-24T01:36:00.004-04:00

There are men in the Ross community who have had facial hair since coming here, to the point where we have never seen their naked faces. Reading that sentence, I bet one of the first people you think of is the one and only Sergio Laprade-Velasco. Practically born with a goatee in place, the fear of the razor kept him out of Rosstache. Yet he has decided to step up for the good of the charity and put his facial hair up on the charity block. If we raise $150 in Sergio's name, he will pick up the razor and be cleanshaven for the first time in his MBA career. As the first "Shave It" challenge bet of Rosstache, go to the PayPal donation site and click on the "Shave It Award" link, donate any amount of money more than $3, and click on the "Contestants Name" box on the "Please Review Your Donation" page and type in Sergio's name. We will also be taking cash donations for this at any other Rosstache-related events! So support this good man, a great charity and make him shave it off!

Midpoint Photos Part 2

2008-03-24T01:19:00.018-04:00

All of the midpoint photos we currently have are uploaded below. Varun "Double H" Chhabra

Shunkar "Tootsie Roll" Sudnaram

Tony "Is" Gross

Tony "10 Hairs" Ouyang

Todd "Major Tom" Bowie

Tim "Love Sick" Lepczyk

Tanuj "More Booze " Mittal

Sri "Double Ds" Maddipati

Nate "Girl Scout" Troup

Matt "Empty Tank" McMurtry

Kevin "Pinner" Dundek

Joe "Hoser" Moser

Joe "Didurmomma" Digirolama

Eric "La Cocina" Vucina

Bryan "Dragon Beard" McCoy

Anugrah "So Huge-ah " Joshi

Amol "Catch em all" Luktuke

"Dear" Abhi Pathak

Aaron "Irish Cream " Bailey
Manish "Da Boss" Dabas

More photos being uploaded tomorrow from happy hour

2008-03-21T21:41:00.003-04:00

Until then, here's a pic of some stachians enjoying basketball

Rosstache Midpoint Photos Part 1

2008-03-21T11:20:00.038-04:00

In no particular order, here are the pictures of the men of Rosstache as taken on Thursday the 20th as well as others emailed in. If your photo wasn't taken by Steve or Chris on Thursday, please take your own and send it in to rosstacheleaders@umich.edu!

Chris "My way or the Highway" Hart

Josh "- th from" Nothwang

Matt "Coming to America" Schaar

Amit "Alfalfa" Nangalia

Mitch "Super Mario" Weitz

Aaron "3-Degree" Heidel

Mark "The Missing" Link

Christian "Pre-Pre Pubescent" Santiago

Suvro "Gunner" Goswami

Punit "Chinchilla" Chiniwalla

Heath "Toffee Bar" Silverman

Aaron "Willie" Nelson

Nate "Chocolate Syrup " Bosco

Chris "Can Do" Andrews

Justin "Likes to get" Felt

Mike "Aw Shucks" Blais

Amit "Nags " Nagpal

Puneet "Chin Strap" Singh

Andy "Green Beer" Syorka

Steve "Jewbacca" Brown

Chris "Chops" Aurner

Chris "Segway " Wilson

Andy "Don't Worry, Be Happy " Davis

Luke "Baklava" Bakalar

Kwaku "Rocku" Ntoso

Mike "Lazerh " Elzahr

Nick "Pariah" Proia

Ron "The Silver Hammer" Maxwell

Mike "Redman" Garris

Vivek "V-Spot" Gadiraju

Updates, news, sponsorships

2008-03-12T21:13:00.002-04:00

As many of you reading this already know, Woodbury Gardens has already stepped up as the title sponsor for Rosstache, and all communications from us from hereon will include them. Through many different avenues we are searching for more sponsors, through the local community, future employers and other connections. If you have any ideas for one and/or want to be further involved in getting money for our great charity, please let us know by emailing rosstacheleaders@umich.edu .

We are currently at 98 men signed up for Rosstache, if you want to be involved or know someone who wants to be involved please have them send us a cleanshaven picture to add to the group. If people are not cleanshaven at this moment, we are reviewing them on a case-by-case basis; in most cases we know that they were cleanshaven within the last week, so we are allowing their entry. If you want to join us please come and talk to us.

We know that your face is getting itchy, trust me that does stop and the soft stage is coming any day now. Failure is not an option; you can look around the school and see the unshaven faces of many of your friends and colleagues to see that you are not alone.

We are soliciting growth pictures to be put onto our facebook page, pictures will also be taken at Happy Hour tomorrow. For now, just keep on growing!

Initiation Day 3

2008-03-10T13:15:00.033-04:00

Tim "Love Sick" Lepczyk

Nate "Girl Scout" Troup

Mike "Ah Shucks" Blais

Matt "Empty Tank" McMurtry

Mike "Lazerh " Elzahr

Vinod "The Boston Strangarajan" Rangarajan

TJ "Sacrebleu" Lebeau

Marc "Special K" Berkowitz

Luke "Baklava" Bakalar

Joe "Propane and Propane Accessories" Strickland

Jeff "Loves" Courtney

Jai "Nagonnaworkhereanymore " Narasimhamoorthy

Dan "Wacky Walker" Luber

Max "Uncle Fester" Yutsis

Brad "The Sorta Great"Alexander

Saurabh "Icy Hot" Srivastava

Kwaku "Rocku" Ntoso

Shripal "Gene Simmons" Meghani

Sri "Double Ds" Maddipati

Ryan "Ghost Face Killa" Baxter

Chris "My way or the highway" Hart

Bill "Blow Up" Doll

Aaron "Willie" Nelson

Steve "Sleeveless" Brunn

Ron "The Silver Hammer" Maxwell

Matt "Neil" Armstrong

Kevin "Rizzo" Rizanski

Harsh "Nasty " Nahar

Evan "Pederass" Appleby

Eric "Big Softey" Satler

Chris "Segway " Wilson

Andy "Don't Worry, Be Happy " Davis

Alok "Go For Broke" Dalal

Vik "Sneakers" Anbazhagan

Aaron "Irish Cream " Bailey

Eric "La Cocina" Vucina
Shimbee "Sushi" Nakata
Amol "Look-took-eh?" Luktuke
Amar "The Hammer" Ravi
Aaron "Colonel Sanders" James

Initiation Day 2

2008-03-09T23:51:00.033-04:00

Abhishek "Let's Polka" Gopalka

Justin "Sherwin" Williams

Ohad "Desi" Dessau

Varun "Double H" Chhabra

Anugrah "So Huge-ah " Joshi

Dan "Pho Rich " Korich

Divyesh "Operandi" Modi

Paul "Sandy" Sandhu

Vik "3V" Vaishya

Nick "Pariah" Proia

Abhi "P-Hak" Pathak

Sonal "Sassy" Singla

Travis "Not So" Coy

Jeff "LeCar" LeBrun

Sid "Vicious" Sinha

Josh "Dawgzn" Katz

Amit "Nags " Nagpal

Mike "Ferus" Garris

Josh "- th from" Nothwang

Dave "Herbie" Erbstein

Aaron "AA" Goldstein

Puneet "Gin " Singh

Todd "Major Tom" Bowie

Amiyah "Brown Bert " Setu

Manish "Da Boss" Dabas

Eric "Double" Chen

Dave "El Nino" Giannino

Dan "Balsa" Wood

Ted "Irish" McElroy

Matt "Schaarrkk" Schaar

Rosstache Initiation - Day 1 Continued

2008-03-05T01:33:00.016-05:00

Ben "Father and" Friedenson

Dave "Hank Steinbrenner" Gaucher

Samir "The Machine Gunner" D'Sa

Shunkar "Tootsie Roll" Sudnaram

Aaron "3-Degree" Heidel

Travis "T.T. Boy" Trembath

Grant "The General" Summers

Sriram "Sleepy" Viji
Amit "Unabomber" Nangalia
Kevin "Less Than" Fuller
Gregory "Eyebrows" Crane

Joe "Dirt" Ferencz
Zvika "Never Can Get" Enav

Heath "Toffee Bar" Silverman
Vivek "V-Spot" Gadiraju

Rosstache Initiation - Day 1

2008-03-04T17:49:00.020-05:00

Mark "Iron-On Chef" Flynn

Dan "Guess Who" Gesser

Nate "Chocolate Syrup " Bosco

Tanuj "More Booze " Mittal

Chris "Can Do" Andrews

Suvro "Suvrock" Goswami

Steve "Borat II" Brown

Brian "Vespa" Harley

Mark "The Missing" Link

Nate "Schmid Break" Schmid

Kevin "Pinner" Dundek

Mitch "Super Mario" Weitz

Christian "Chile " SantiagoJoe "Didurmomma" Digirolama

Chris "Chops" Aurner

Bryan "Dragon Beard" McCoy

Punit "The Chin Man" Chiniwalla

Get Initiated into Rosstache!

2008-03-04T16:27:00.010-05:00

Signed up yet? If so, welcome to Rosstache, more information will follow.

Not signed up yet? Stop by the table in the b-school lounge on Wednesday from 10am-2pm or Thursday at Scorekeepers Happy Hour to get your photograph taken and name entered into our database. If you can't make it, email a photo with proof of date (newspaper etc) of your cleanshaven face to to rosstacheleaders@umich.edu .

Not sure why to sign up? This is a great opportunity to help the local community while having a great time with little effort involved, using the power of your whiskers to help children. Burt Reynolds is our patron saint because he knows the power of a strong moustache, but even if you can't grow a killer 'stache you can be involved; we have a category for these individuals! Anyone and everyone who can put hair on their upper lip and have fun doing it can be involved; why aren't you? Take a look at last year's site for pics from last year's events, it is our goal to make this year bigger and better, to do so we need your involvement. Step up and sign up!

Rules Overview & Basic Timetable

2008-02-21T16:55:00.003-05:00

Dates:

- March 4th - 6th: Stop by the Rosstache table in the ER Lobby starting March 4th to get your clean shaven picture taken or get your picture taken at Happy Hour on March 6th. Pictures must be taken by the end of Happy Hour. Feel free to grow whatever you want (beard, xl sideburns, etc.) in additon to your stache

- March 17th: Online bidding and donations begin. All proceeds will go to Orchards Children's Services of Ann Arbor

- Mach 27th: Last day for beards. Shave it into something cool (e.g. a dragon blowing flames) and come to Happy Hour dressed appropriately (trucker, wizard, etc.)

- April 3rd: Official Rosstache Awards Ceremony at Scorekeepers during Happy Hour. No hair allowed below the upper lip

- April 4th: Rosstache celebratory party/road trip

Rules:
- If you can’t make it to have your picture taken in the ER lounge or happy hour you can send us a picture between March 3rd-6th with a picture of you and a current newspaper. Send pics to rosstacheleaders@umich.edu.
- You MUST be at the final happy hour for the “judging” and awards ceremony
- Your friends, family, etc. will have the opportunity to bid on you in a variety of categories – best/worst stache, best look-alike stache, etc.
- From Friday March 28^th through Thursday, April 3rd, you must have ONLY your mustache – no soul patch, beard, goatee, etc. – THIS IS ROSSTACHE WEEK
- Any and all necessary information will be available through http://rosstache2008.blogspot.com ; if any questions please email rosstacheleaders@umich.edu .

GET YOUR 'STACHE ON!

About the Charity . . .

2008-02-19T22:49:00.004-05:00

Now that you all have an idea what Rosstache is all about, here’s some information on why we’re doing it. All Rosstachians will attempt to raise as much money as possible through sponsorships from friends, enemies, girlfriends (or boyfriends), family, companies, you name it . . . Then we will give all the money to a very deserving charity.

The money raised will go to Orchards Children’s Services (http://www.orchards.org ), a local group that assists children and families throughout Washtenaw, Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties. For over 45 years, Orchards has worked to assist traumatized children with appropriate therapeutic and health services, educational resources, and recreational activities. Through employing a professional staff trained to assist families in improving their parenting skills and assist the foster and adoption process, Orchards is a credit to the community and the people they help.

While the support from the Ross community has already been rather strong, on more than a few occasions we have come upon those who are worried they can’t grow a moustache, that it won’t look good and most importantly it will not appeal to significant others. I am here to tell you that that is completely not an issue and that you can easily be sexy while rocking the stache . . .

Great Success!

Introduction to Rosstache 2008

2008-02-19T13:30:00.007-05:00

That’s right!!! Rosstache 2008 is almost here and we are gearing up for another intense mustache growing competition. For those not familiar with Rosstache, feast your eyes on some of last year’s pictures: http://rosstache2007.blogspot.com/.

The Ross Burt Reynolds Club is back and we're once again giving new meaning to "growth strategies" with Rosstache 2008! What is Rosstache and why would you care about growing your own mustache for 4 straight weeks? Well, because women love a guy with a good stache. And… you will be helping children find better lives through Orchards Children Services.

Last year’s Rosstache event brought in over $5500 for charity and we are aiming to crush this number this year!

So how does this work? When you return from Spring Break, come to the Executive Lounge to get your picture taken (exact times for photos will be emailed later). For your photo, you must be CLEAN SHAVEN! (We must be fair after all!). You must have your clean shaven picture taken by Thursday, March 6^th at happy hour. But don’t worry if you won’t be around, if you can’t get your picture taken by Thursday (if you are away on MAP for example) we will allow you to take a picture of yourself holding up a current publication to prove the date of your clean shaveness – think hostage situation. You'll have until the RSA Happy Hour on April 3rd to grow out the best (or worst) lip broom possible, at which time a panel of esteemed judges will choose winners from a variety of categories.

Once we have the pictures taken we will explain the rules, the growth categories, the contests, and the way you can get your classmates, family, friends, employers and others to donate to your growth!

We will be having awards for a variety of categories (i.e. Best Cop Stache) and there will be opportunity for many to get involved! Usually, this is specific to guys, but we don’t discriminate here at Ross so women can join in too. Those women will, of course, automatically get an award.

So remember, enjoy the break and start thinking about how you can make a difference by simply putting your razor away (and potentially your vanity). Some of last year’s Rosstachians will be emailing you throughout the week to share the tale of their experience in last year’s competition.

Get your 'stache on!

The Ross Burt Reynolds Club Exec Board

Rosstache: Ross∙tache [ross-tash], noun

The hair grown on an Ross MBA’s upper lip (usually a male)
The sacrifice of vanity for charity for several weeks to raise money for a good cause

Rosstache 2008 is only three weeks away!

2008-02-16T16:15:00.002-05:00

Starting on March 3rd is the biggest, hairiest event of the year begins when the Men of Ross sacrifice vanity for charity. In honor of our 'stache father, the great Burt Reynolds, we are growing our own fu manchus, soup strainers and lip warmers leading up the 3rd Annual Rosstache Contest Awards to take place at Scorekeepers Happy Hour on April 3rd. Are you man enough to grow your own? Stay tuned for more details and rules . . .