Plenty of men sported a little extra facial hair for the annual “No Shave November,” without staying true to its original cause—awareness for prostate cancer—yet this year, several Washington University students returned to the month’s roots.

Sophomores Martin Goree, Isaac Kaufer and Ethan Kuehl raised $1,035 for the American Cancer Society with a GoFundMe page this November.

The students asked for friends and family to “sponsor” their beards for the month of November, promising to shave their beards into unconventional patterns for the first of December.

This was actually Goree’s second year completing the challenge, which he says was inspired by the teachers from his high school who would similarly ask their students to sponsor their beards.

“The summer before my freshman year there were a couple incidents where cancer became more of a personal issue for people I knew,” Goree said. “Coming into sophomore year I decided to ask a couple of people I knew who were capable of growing beards like Isaac and our other friend Ethan if they were interested, and it ended up working really nicely.”

Goree said that they had initially set their goal at $500, but after that was reached within the first few days, they raised the goal throughout the rest of the month. Kaufer said that the group mostly reached out for fundraising through social media and their friends and family.

“We’re both on the club frisbee team, we spread it out to them, lots of friends, lots of family. Thanksgiving came at a good time where people were able to tell their families ‘Oh we’re raising money, there’s a reason we have these ridiculous beards,’” Kaufer said.

After a month of promoting their beards, the group had generated enough buzz for a big celebration.

On the first of December, the three men sported unconventional beards, living up to their promise.

“The shaving ceremony was quite something, we all got in the bathroom, we all had our electric razors and clean shave razors and there was a big watching party,” Kaufer said.