The Frank Edwards Well

It's amazing what people can do by working together to help deserving needy people in a poor country. LifeNets had a request to drill a water well from several families in the remote area of Nyanyara, Malawi, located between Balaka and Blantyre. The well would serve at least 60 people who had to walk a few miles to the nearest source of fresh water and carry it on their heads back to their settlement.

The cost of the well was not cheap. The going price to drill a well and have the contractor guarantee that it would not go dry is $5000. Malawi had been in severe drought that spread into Zambia and other countries.

We started looking for interested parties who wanted to help. Maybe someone would organize a fundraiser? The Akron, Ohio United Church of God Teen Speech Club stepped up to the challenge by raising a good portion of the needed money by sponsoring a Spaghetti Dinner and Variety Show on Saturday night December 14th.

Why is the well called the Frank Edwards Well? Please keep reading. It's quite a story.

While many many people in the Akron congregation worked together for the extra-successful event my enthusiastic contact person was Erik Jones, a leader in the Teen Speech Club. A colorful flyer advertising the event was circulated. Take a look at the flyer! The Speech Club also sold calendars to raise funds.

As the fundraiser was being organized, pastor Andre van Belkum from South Africa visited the well-site and took some photos. Also, the people who will benefit from the well gratefully signed their name to a list. This well will greatly increase their quality of life and health. The major cause of disease in Africa is polluted water. Having a source of clean drinking water nearby is a great step up for these people. Take a look at the list they signed.

One of the biggest fundraiser draws of the Akron Spaghetti Dinner/Variety Show night was the "Shave Frankie For Malawi" fundraiser. Those not from this area might not understand this, so I will give a brief background. Frank Edwards is a long time member of the Akron Church. He started coming to church with his family. After he graduated from High School, he began growing a beard, and has now had it for over 25 years. Frank has a very unique and humorous personality and is always joking around. Most people have never seen Frank without a beard. His beard is part of his personality.

Frankie Edwards (before)

On a number of occasions I have jokingly tried to convince Frank to shave off his beard. Two years ago, we talked about having a fundraiser to shave it off—but it was just talk and never happened. As we were planning for the big Spaghetti Dinner/Variety show to help out the LifeNets Malawi project, the "Frankie idea" came back into my mind. "How much extra money could we raise if we could get Frankie Edwards to shave his beloved beard off for a specified amount." I floated the idea to the group working on the Spaghetti Dinner/Variety Show activity, and it was received with very positive comments! If that group of 8 people were that excited about seeing Frank shave his beard, how would the whole Church respond? I went up to Frank and gave him my idea. After thinking about it a few seconds, he said "OK, anything to help our brothers." He agreed to do it but I could tell it was an apprehensive yes.

A few weeks later, we made an announcement regarding the Dec. 14^th activity and added in the announcement that if we could raise $200 or more at the activity for Frankie to shave his beard—he would do it! The announcement was met with laughter.

Well finally Dec. 14 came! The big Spaghetti Dinner/Variety Show! We set up a table by the dinner line for donations to the "Shave Frankie" fund. Posters were made to play it up. As people went through the dinner line, they threw money into a basket. Even people from out of town (who couldn’t be at the activity) sent money in via mail, because they wanted to see Frankie shave. Some of Frank’s co-workers sent money with Frankie because they wanted to see Frank shave. I passed by the "Frankie" table a few times and saw that the amount raised was slowly increasing. I heard that there were people who were guaranteeing enough to shave it off. The brethren were very excited and enthused about this fundraiser.

Well, the night went on and we were on to the Variety Show. I was one of the MC’s. Somebody came up to me back stage and handed me a paper with the totals from the fundraiser. I looked down in shock to see that the "Shave Frankie For Malawi" fundraiser had raised $1,331! The brethren from the Northeast Ohio area wanted to see Frankie shave so much (of course knowing the proceeds were going to a good cause) that they donated almost as much as we brought in from the spaghetti dinner (there were a little over 400 people there). From time to time, throughout the variety show, we would have Frank run through the auditorium being chased by someone with hedge clippers. The audience howled with laughter!

Frankie Edwards (after)

We had gone back and forth on how we would shave Frankie. At first we were going to do it backstage and bring him out. But, instead we decided to do it right on stage at the end of the show. Theresa Jarvis, a nurse and trained cosmetologist, took care of the shaving. We brought Frankie and Theresa out and, on stage, Frankie’s beard was cut off. We played the "2001 Space Odyssey" music as background. In about 5 minutes, the beard was gone.

Some, not from the Akron area, might wonder why a group of people would donate so much to see a guy shave his beard. Frankie is the kind of guy that’s always joking around and the beard seemed like a part of his personality. Now Frankie has entered the post beard phase of his life.

Who else (in the whole world) can say they raised over $1,000 just by shaving off their beard? THANKS FRANKIE!

Here is the article that Erik Jones wrote for the March/April 2003 United News.

Teen Speech Club Sponsors Spaghetti Dinner/Variety Show

For two years, the Northeast Ohio Teen Speech Club has contributed to LifeNets programs by selling calendars to help the United Youth Camp in the Philippines. The amounts raised by these fundraisers were honorable, but the teens in the club wanted to do more. After thinking about some different options, the leadership of the Teen Speech Club decided to host a Spaghetti Dinner/Variety Show night. We had done spaghetti dinners in the past, and they always were successful.

The date for this activity was scheduled for the Sabbath of December 14, 2002. This date was chosen to coincide with the Council of Elders meetings in Cincinnati, so Mr. Clyde Kilough could be our guest speaker at services. Months of planning and hard work went into this activity by a group of very dedicated individuals.

The activity was held in North High School (in Akron, Ohio). Three congregations (Cleveland, Canton, & Youngstown) canceled services to meet together in Akron. We also had visitors from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Columbus, Ohio, Cambridge, Ohio, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Sacramento, California! Many commented that the large crowd reminded them of the old days in the Church.

Teens served in nearly every aspect of the Church services, including ushering, parking, greeting, special music, and song leading. The sermonette was given by Phil Myers, the president of the Speech Club, on how to resolve conflicts between people. Mr. Kilough presented an inspiring sermon on what real wealth is—using his experiences from the Philippines as examples.

The Spaghetti Dinner followed services. The teens also served in nearly every aspect of the dinner. One interesting side fundraiser was what we called the “Shave Frankie for Malawi” fundraiser. Frank Edwards, a member in Akron, agreed to shave off his 25 year old beard if we could raise $200 or more for LifeNets. As the brethren went through the dinner line, they could donate to the “Frankie” fund. We ended up raising $1,331 to shave Frank’s beard!

The Variety Show was a huge success. We had acts ranging from dancing & vocal solos to skits & poetry recitations. We even had a group sing-a-long of the “Mickey Mouse Club” theme song. Our three MC’s built the show around the theme of corny jokes. They were bad!

At the conclusion of the show, Frank Edwards was brought out and had his beard shaved off on stage. We suspect that Frank’s beard was the most valuable beard in history—raising $1,331 alone for the LifeNets project.

This fundraiser was a huge success. After all the money was counted, we found out we had raised a total of $2970.78 for the LifeNets project. This money went towards the LifeNets project in Blantyre, Malawi. It specifically is being used to build a well for the brethren there. This well will save the brethren from walking over a mile to get their water! Because of our unique “Shave Frankie” fundraiser that raised a significant portion of the donation, it was decided that the well would be named “The Frank Edwards Well”. On February 7, 2003, Mr. Bill Jahns delivered $5,000 (which included the money raised in Akron) to Malawi. The work on the well will start immediately.

We hope this article helps other congregations to see what they can do to help their brethren in other countries. Instead of holding activities like this to boost your local church social fund—why not try to raise money to directly help your brethren who live in third world countries! You probably won’t be able to raise $1,331 to shave someone’s beard—but every little bit helps! It is amazing what can be accomplished with some planning and a combining of God’s people! To find out more information about how your congregation can sponsor an activity to raise money for a specific LifeNets project, email Mr. Victor Kubik at vic@kubik.org or call him at 888-821-0095. For more information on LifeNets, visit www.lifenets.org.

You can view pictures of the Northeast Ohio Spaghetti Dinner and Variety Show at www.ucglive.com/ucgpics and at http://lifenets.org/volunteers/akron2002.htm.

Erik Jones
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Because of great success of Frank Edwards feat, we have decided to name the well after him. With the money raised in Akron plus an additional grant from LifeNets we were able to send the money to South Africa. Bill Jahns, former pastor of Akron hand-carried the money to Malawi on a February 2003 trip. The well is under construction. Well done!