Genesee Beard Co. Fights Crohn's Disease

In late 2014, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease after months of pain, discomfort and countless doctor appointments.  Throughout all of this, I became far too exhausted to bother shaving and grew out my first beard.  When the diagnosis finally came through and I began my road to recovery, I shaved my beard clean off to signify change.  What a mistake that was.  I quickly realized how much I disliked my clean shaven face and decided to grow my beard back out; this time I was going to take better care of it and that led to the creation of Genesee Beard Co.

Crohn's Disease is much more than just "going to the bathroom a lot." There's excruciating pain throughout your entire body. Your joints swell up to the point of not being able to bend them or walk. Your body becomes weak and malnourished. You lose the energy to even get out of bed. Some people require ostomy bags or have sections of their intestines removed. Your diet becomes restricted and some people have to be fed intravenously.

Although there are various medications available that work to varying degrees on a person to person basis, there still isn't a cure. There are many great foundations out there that are fighting to find a cure and fighting to improve treatment. Genesee Beard Co. is vouching to donate 15% of all proceeds for the month of October to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. We're also hoping our amazing customers want to join in as well! We ask that if you can spare it, to please consider donating any amount to this cause. If we reach the $2,000 dollar mark, I'll shave my beard off live (either through Facebook Live or at an event in Rochester, NY [TBD]) as a symbol to my initial diagnosis and the road to finding a cure.

Update: 11/1/2017 - We didn't quite hit out goal but we were still able to come together and raise money for Crohn's Disease research. Thanks for everyone that helped out! - Dave Meleca