At Timberline Bank in Grand Junction, Colorado, staff and customers have come together for the past two years to take part in the $819 million-asset community bank’s No Shave November challenge, a campaign for cancer advocacy, education and research. Encouraged to ditch their razors and grow out their facial hair during the month of November, participants spread awareness while raising money for local men’s health initiatives.
What started in 2021 as a small tradition among Timberline Bank staff became a community initiative in 2024 after customers, noticing bank staff suddenly growing out beards and mustaches, expressed interest in joining the challenge.
“[We] did it internally as a little team bonding thing, and then it just kind of grew,” says Louise Goodman, president of Timberline Bank’s Grand Junction branch. “It’s really neat to see how you can take something small and give it some attention and … [watch] the way it kind of takes on a life of its own.”
In 2025, Timberline Bank raised more than $12,000 for Grand Valley Oncology of Community Hospital in Grand Junction, with 49 participants. Goodman says several local businesses joined the challenge, including one company whose entire team participated in solidarity with a colleague battling cancer. While it’s often fun to see people change their appearances, she says, most importantly, it serves as an opportunity to promote cancer education and awareness.
“There’s a gentleman [whose] beard was halfway down his chest [who] shaved it all off,” she says, “If you normally know him [with a beard] and now he doesn’t have it, what’s the first thing you’re going to ask? ‘What’d you do? Where’d your beard go?’ And then he can share the [No Shave November] story.”
For Goodman, watching the bank and local community come together for a good cause has been inspiring. Events like this one are at the heart of Timberline Bank’s mission to give back.
“I think that when you have the ability to do something, you should,” she says. “We’re a community bank, we live here … and that’s just part of who we are, part of what we do.”