JOHNSTOWN — Saturday’s second annual tongue-in-cheek Beard of the Year contest Saturday at the Johnstown Area Community Center left no man the loser.
“I would like to thank my mother and father for making this possible,” quipped Roy Mowry of Gloversville as he received the coveted most creative beard award.
“I would like to thank my genes,” said Charles Potter of Gloversville, creative beard runner-up.
Roy Sweet of Mayfield got the longest beard award for the second year in a row—with no contestant coming even close, and Mark Ellithorpe of Gloversville got an award just for showing up.
“It’s a fun event,” said Irena Gelman, director of Fulton County Public Health, which co-sponsored the third annual Connecting Our Generations Health Expo.
She said seven men were expected but only four came.
“It’s weather dependent,” Gelman explained.
Making the tough calls were judges Julie Mead, a cosmetology instructor at the HFM Career and Technology Center, and her students Jessica Calhoun and Nicole Riska, both of Johnstown, and Arianna Coffin of Gloversville. The decisions of the judges are final. (The students did get extra credit for being there.)
Since most of the visitors to the Expo are women, the beard contest was conceived as a way to draw more men, said Gelman.
And it succeeded, sort of.
