While the song “My Favorite Things” may be symbolic of Christmas cheer, a band of male teachers and staff at Jordan-Elbridge High School have a new version of “whiskers on kittens” to sport this holiday season.

Since Thanksgiving Day, nearly 25 teachers and staff have put down their razors and are voluntarily growing “ugly beards” as participants in the high school's second annual Ugly Beard Contest.

During the week before Christmas, people can pay $1 or trade in a can of food to vote for the person who has the ugliest beard.

All proceeds and food will be donated to the Jordan-Elbridge Food Bank.

Last year, the school raised almost $3,000, with donors coming from as near as students in the high school to as far as a soldier stationed in Afghanistan.

Donations can be made online at www.uglybeards.org.

“There's always a need for the food bank,” Principal Dave Zehner said, “and they do a great job here and a lot for the community. We wanted to be able to do something and raise money for them.”

With a chuckle he added, “Basically, you wake up in the morning and don't shave and people pay you. I figure I'm saving three to three-and-a-half minutes a day.”

Zehner said his brother, John, a teacher at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School in Maryland, came up with the idea for the Ugly Beard Contest a few years ago.

J-E adopted the contest last year, and this time both schools are competing against each other to see which school can raise the most money. Zehner said he is always on the lookout for other schools interested in joining future contests.

Photos of all of the participants can be found at www.uglybeards.org, which is where people can also donate using PayPal.

“I figure that by 2010 we're going to be bigger than Google,” Zehner said with a laugh, “a huge Internet phenomenon.”