About This Fundraiser

In the tradition of amazing American beards (see above - can you name all of them?), Race and Social Justice in U.S. History is hosting its 11th Annual No-Shave-November Fundraiser (we lost two years to COVID).

You may ask, why? Is this really necessary to raise money? Actually it is. We do many things specific to the RSJ class that make fundraising a necessity.

• 1. Guest speakers in the past have been:

     1. 2023-24 Guest Speakers:  Melba Beals spoke via Zoom in Brunelle Theater on November 7th, 2023.  On February 15th, 2024, Joe McGill, founder of the Slave Dwelling Project and co-author of Sleeping With Our Ancestors, spoke in Brunelle Theater.

     2. 2023 Guest Speaker:  Sebastian Yoon (from "College Behind Bars").  Sebastian served 16 years for manslaughter.  But while incarcerated he earned his degree.  In August 2022, Sebastian said "...now I'm a Program Manager at the Open Society Foundations.  Imagine if I didn't have a degree; I surely wouldn't have received an opportunity for even a job interview here."

     3. 2022:  No Guest Speaker

     4. 2021:  No Guest Speaker

     5. 2020 Guest Speaker:  John O'Brien (civil rights activist/historian).  John's life is almost like Forrest Gump.  You name the civil rights event, and he's connected.  John was at the Stonewall Uprising (one of 4 people who yanked a parking meter out of the ground to ram the door of the Stonewall Inn).  His talk is titled "Moving Forward, Looking Back".

     6. 2019 Guest Speaker:  Valerie Red-Horse (filmmaker/philanthropist).  She came to discuss her film "Mankiller" - a documentary about the life of Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee tribe.

     7. 2018 Guest Speaker:  Melba Beals (one of the Little Rock 9) to DSHS.  Melba Beals spoke to over 400 community members (mostly students).

     8. 2017 Guest Speaker:  John Dau ("God Grew Tired of Us") to DSHS in March 2017.  John Dau spoke to over 700 community members (he spoke twice during his visit)

1. No Shave November helped fund the purchase of Race and Social Justice in U.S. History readers. Each student is given a 100 page reader at the beginning of the year. These readers contain primary, and secondary sources related to the curriculum. While students are expected to return readers, they will inevitably lose or damage some. We are currently using the 2nd edition of the reader.

   1. No Shave November helped fund students to attend the Inauguration of the President in January 2017. I will continue to use funds to aid student field trips throughout the school.

   2. RSJ helped fund several other guest speakers over the years. Le Ly Hayslip, Clarence Jones, Don Schilling (Selma and Cesar Chavez), and Dean Kevin Johnson (UCD King Hall) were highlights. If you have an relative, or friend who might serve as a guest speaker, please let us know.

   3. Purchase of movies for the Video Library. We currently have over 50 movies available for check out. Students watch the movie and then answer questions to earn a little extra credit: Harriet, The Birth of a Nation, and Stonewall Uprising were a few our recent additions. Prom Night in Mississippi was donated several years ago. We always need replacements for The Great Debaters.

   4. Supplies are always needed. As you may know, we use the Interwrite PRS Clickers to enhance class learning. We have 38 clickers and each use 3 batteries. As you can imagine, we use a lot of batteries!! Also, with winter approaching I need to replenish our tissue stash.

Onto "The Rules":

• 1. Mr. Williams will be growing his beard all month until the 1st of December (absolutely no trimming!). You can see the results by clicking on the Mr. Williams' Beard - Current Leaderboard. Trimming date has been set for the evening of December 1st. Viewing of the freshly shorn beard will be Wednesday, December 2nd.

  2. All donors should request a special "shape shave". On the evening of December 2nd,  I will shave my beard into the shape of the highest shave request. The winning choice will be determined by total amount pledged to that particular style. You may want to coordinate your donations! For more current styles and their donation status see Current Shave Requests and Different Facial Hair Styles.

  3. The beard, sideburns, and head hair can be used to request a sculpt. As cool as it seems, my eyebrows are not part of my beard. Your request cannot be to continue growing the beard.

1. And that's it for the rules. Now, let's do this...!

The concept for using No-Shave-November as a fundraiser was taken from the highly successful Mustache-a-thon that benefited the 826 Valencia program in San Francisco. See, this isn't as crazy as it seems! The 2007 Mustache-a-thon raised $15,000 for 826 Valencia. It also successfully embarrassed 15 otherwise handsome (including one of my former students, Jon Perkins), intelligent young men.