PREVIEW

AssetID: 35367723

Headline: A Must-Sea! Burly, Bearded Men Dress Up As Mermen For Hilarious Charity Calendar

Caption: A group of bearded Canadian men have been transformed into mermen for a hilarious charity calendar. The Newfoundland and Labrador Beard and Moustache Club raised almost $250,000 last year when a group men sporting facial hair decided to wear fishtails and scales. Now the bearded men are back for a second round and this time plan to donate all proceeds to the Violence Prevention Newfoundland and Labrador, an organization which aims to reduce violence for vulnerable populations. The funding will help with education, advocacy and support for those groups who are impacted by violence. Group founder Hasan Hai told the HuffPost why the bearded men decided to release a second calendar after the success of last year's edition. 'After last year's calendar went viral, we knew we found the perfect organization and project to support this year,' he said. The group, entitled the MerB'ys, first came up with its name because it combined the term 'mermen' with 'b'y', which is a Newfoundland gender-neutral word for 'buddy'. What's required to become a member of the fishtail-wearing group? You must have facial hair and a passion for giving back to charity. 'This calendar is really an opportunity to take a traditionally accepted idea of what masculinity looks like ― big and bearded, for instance ― and show that masculinity is actually a beautiful spectrum,' he said. 'Men can be gentle, affectionate, whimsical and loving.' This year, Hasan said the calendar includes transgender men and men of all different races to incorporate diversity. 'What most people don't realize is that being selected to be a merb'y has nothing to do with your physical appearance or amount of facial hair you have,' Hasan said. The selection process was all about what the men wrote in their application. 'It's really the beard on the inside that matters,' Hasan said.

Keywords: feature,photo feature,photo story,quirky,odd,oddity,funny,humor,humour,mer-men,costume,charity

PersonInImage: