Rocket City Beard & Stache Bash challenges wearers - and makers - of facial hair for good cause (with video)

Donald Brown, co-founder of Keep Volunteering and founder of the Dixieland Beard Coalition, shows off the ferocity of his own facial hair in this promotional photo for the 2013 Rocket City Beard & Stache Bash, which will be held Saturday, April 27, 2013, at Lowe Mill in Huntsville, Ala. All proceeds from admission donations and beard and moustache competitions will benefit the non-profit Keep Volunteering, a disaster recovery networker based in Madison County. (Courtesy of Alice Brown)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – It's a big hairy deal: The Dixieland Beard Coalition will host the second annual Rocket City Beard & Stache Bash on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at Lowe Mill in Huntsville.

The afternoon and evening family-friendly Bash includes beard and moustache competitions for men, women and children -- the latter theoretically created by non-natural means.

Lots of food will be provided by Schnitzel Ranch, and some fresh-brewed beers will be on tap from local breweries Straight to Ale, Yellowhammer, Blue Pants and Good People.

The event opens Saturday at 4 p.m., with the first beard competition – the one for kids – beginning at 5 p.m.

The Dixieland Beards and buddies will be gathering in the first-floor connecting room at Lowe Mill, which is at the corner of Seminole Drive and Ninth Avenue in Huntsville.

Regionally popular Southern rock and blues bands Whiskey River Kings, Fistful of Beard and Colossus at Best from Birmingham will keep things rocking.

All of the proceeds from admission ($10 suggested minimum donation) and from entering the contests ($10 in advance online or $15 at the door) will benefit Keep Volunteering. Online competition registration is posted at DixielandBeards.com.

Keep Volunteering is a local non-profit clearing-house for people and groups willing to help others and those in need from disasters.

Keep Volunteering is now Madison County's official lead volunteer agency for long-term recovery case management. In regular talk, that means that people whose homes are still messed up from the tornadoes in 2012 and 2011 – and now this year – can contact the group to get some on-going help with making things right, not just tapping some temporary tarps into place. And individuals and groups willing to help can go to KeepVolunteering.org to find out how to help.

In the video below, recorded in 2012, Whiskey River Kings sing their driving "Fire & Whiskey" --

Kay Campbell, religion reporter for The Huntsville Times and

, can be reached at

and 256-532-4320.

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