Clausen Named HEADstrong Humanitarian of the Month
March 27, 2014 - Major League Lacrosse (MLL) News Release
BOSTON (March 27, 2014) - Major League Lacrosse, the premier professional outdoor lacrosse league, announced today that the recipient of the HEADstrong Humantiarian of the Month award for March is Denver Outlaws defenseman Ken Clausen.
The HEADstrong Foundation and MLL entered into a partnership in January to help raise awareness about blood cancers to the extended lacrosse community and its fans.
As part of the partnership HEADstrong and MLL wanted to recognize members of the MLL who distinguish themselves in their community outreach with the HEADstrong Humanitarian of the Month award
Clausen earned the Humanitarian of the Month honor for his Lacrosse Mustache Madness initiative that raises money for the HEADstrong Foundation.
Started in 2009 Mustache Madness is an annual Fall fundraising campaign that was created as a way to rally the lacrosse community and raise funds to support the HEADstrong Foundation. Since its inception, has helped raise over $400,000 to support the HEADstrong fight.
"I've always wanted to continue giving back to the community one way or another," Clausen said. "While I was at Virginia, I was helping out doing some student teaching and volunteering in the community. I first heard about this kind of campaign on vacation in Fiji, of all places, and I heard these guys talking about the Movember campaign that was going on over in Australia and it seemed to have been growing internationally. It sounded really cool and it worked well with me because I already had the finger 'stache and had some notoriety with this mustache [tattoo] on my finger and my stick so it plugged into things I was already known for.
"The lacrosse community as a whole is known as just such a special and tight knit community," he continued. "I mean the degrees of separation are everywhere, so I felt like an event [similar to Movember] could work really well within the community and people would hopefully unite around it. The concept of the event is to grow your mustache from October 19th through the end of November."
The relationship between Mustache Madness and HEADstrong runs very deep, and just this past week at the 4th Annual HEADstrong Limelight Gala, Clausen was honored as the recipient of the Relentless Spirit Award for his hard work.
"It was the first time they had given this award," Clausen said. "I was incredibly honored to receive it and like I said at the event, I was completely honored to accept the award but it's really been a team effort. It wouldn't be possible without the support of the HEADStrong Foundation and the support of the lacrosse community. I consider it a team fight and everyone's been jumping in and helping out. It was an incredible honor to receive it and an amazing event that they put on and I was really grateful to be honored there."
Major League Lacrosse Stories from March 27, 2014
- Outlaws to Hold Open Tryouts - Denver Outlaws
- Outlaws' Ken Clausen Named Headstrong Humanitarian of the Month - Denver Outlaws
- Clausen Named HEADstrong Humanitarian of the Month - MLL
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
