Days are numbered for charity's mustaches

If it wasn't for charity, St. Charles police officer Scott Coryell's bushy new mustache wouldn't have survived Halloween.

"You know how you can get a piece of hair stuck on you, and it just sits there?" Coryell said. "That's what it's like. Constantly. I hate it."

Yet the mustache remains.

Until Dec. 4, at least, when Coryell completes his part in Movember - an annual effort to raise money and awareness for men's health issues.

Coryell said he was unaware of the fundraiser when he began growing his mustache in early October over a six-day break from work.

That's when his friends at St. Charlies Pub & Grill told him about the charity - launched in Australia in 2003 - and assembled a team of a dozen men willing to dedicate their upper lips to the cause through the end of November.

Since then, the team has used the Internet to solicit more than $1,400 in donations for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

"We just want to raise as much as we possibly can," Coryell said.

According to movember.com, Movember has raised more than $47 million in the last six years, making it the world's largest men's charity event. Participants set up online profiles, including photos of their mustaches and personal messages. Online donations can be made to an individual or team.

Coryell, 42, of Wayne, says this is the first time he has worn a mustache. Initially, his wife encouraged him to "let it keep going, see how it grows," he said.

"Now, she's like, 'Get that thing off your lip,'" he joked.

Coryell said his team will collect donations through the end of November. But after a Dec. 4 Movember gala in Chicago, that thicket on his upper lip "is gone."

Until next Movember, anyway.

Geneva attorney dies: Condolences to the family of Geneva attorney Joseph Rago, who died of pancreatic cancer Nov. 13 at the age of 49.

A Chicago native, Rago was an assistant state's attorney in Kane and DeKalb counties before opening his own practice in 2001. He also was the founder and first president of the Kane County Justinian Society of Lawyers.

Relatives described Rago in an obituary as a "history buff" who loved talking politics and current events, following the Bears, cooking Italian food and coaching his son's and daughters' soccer teams.

Rago studied history and economics at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich., before earning his law degree from Chicago's Kent College of Law.

Memorials can be made to the Joseph Rago Memorial Fund for his Children's Education at Fifth Third Bank, 225 W. State St., Geneva. For more information, call (630) 232-8233.

Old cell phones needed: If you're looking to get rid of an old cell phone, consider donating it to the Central Kane County TRIAD.

The social service group, comprised of police and government agencies from the area, is collecting working cell phones to give to senior citizens for use in the event of an emergency.

Donations can be made in the lobbies of the St. Charles Police Department, 2 State Ave., and the Geneva Township Senior Center, 400 Wheeler Drive. Call (630) 232-3602.