As it turns out, there are many different names for a mustache: cookie duster, face furniture, flavor savor, lip tickler and lip lettuce, and the list goes on. Although it may have a funny name, this facial hair has a serious cause for the St. Edward’s University men’s lacrosse team.

The team will be growing out mustaches to raise awareness and funding for cancer research in partnership with Men’s Lacrosse Mustache Madness, a nationwide fundraising project currently in its second year.

“We’re doing it to fight cancer. I know that my life’s been touched by cancer quite a bit, and I don’t think there is anybody, really, who hasn’t had cancer touch them,” lacrosse team president Ryan Schmidt said. “It’s a fun way that the lacrosse team can kind of give back and help support cancer research.”

The lacrosse team is reaching out through their Facebook fan page and will take donations through their account on the Sportsgrant Foundation website, which will close at 5 p.m. on Nov. 30. As of press time, the team has raised $336.

All of the money the team raises will go the HEADstrong Foundation, which was founded by Nicholas Collelouri, a lacrosse player diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, an aggressive type of blood cancer.

Men’s lacrosse teams from across the country are retiring their razor blades for November to raise awareness and support the HEADstrong Foundation.

“It’s kind of really neat that the lacrosse community, especially, got together and decided, ‘hey, let’s does this as one community to help support this one foundation,'” said Vice President and Team Manager Robert Flores. “What’s really cool, I think, is not only…how it’s kind of helping us bond together as a team, but it’s also kind of cool to know that there’s that entire community trying to help this one cause.”

The team found out about Men’s Lacrosse Mustache Madness through lacrosseplayground.com, a lacrosse blog that some of the players consistently follow.

For some, sporting a mustache was an easy decision.

“We’ve had a few players in our history rock some pretty nasty ‘staches, so we figured it would be fitting,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt and Flores said that if a student does not have money to donate, there are other ways to help the cause.

“I mean, even if people for some reason don’t have a dollar or something, they can grow out a mustache too,” Schmidt said. “We’re always looking for more people.”

Flores said he was a fan of the alternative.

“We’d love to see as many mustaches as we can,” Flores said. “If we could get a whole campus full of mustaches, that would be amazing.”