By Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau
Sean Coffey didn’t just create the funkiest, funniest, most festive Christmas beard his imagination could conjure up.
Sure, the Grand Canyon University staffer researched the beard bauble phenomenon, and yes, he read that using copious amounts of glitter was a glowing fad in the holiday facial-hair decorating circuit.
But Coffey — whose stylish holiday chin was just one of many over-the-top Christmas designs at GCU’s 27th Avenue office — was determined to sport the merriest beard of them all.
“I wanted to one-up them,” said Coffey, a degree process auditor.
The Christmas contest judges at 27th Avenue agreed that the Santa-meets-leprechaun concept was No. 1.
“It was actually (for) an ugly sweater contest,” said Coffey, who hoisted aloft a basket of goodies that was first prize. “They said there was some controversy, but they decided my face could be considered a ‘beard sweater.’ ’’
Before arriving to work on contest day, Coffey spent hours perfecting his glittering, ornament-festooned beard, using gobs of glue to encourage it to curl up at the ends in a flip.
A Simon Legree mustache bedecked with purple and red tree lights, spiked hair, and a headband of twinkling lights over crinkling eyes completed the picture.
Throughout the 27th Avenue office, different teams concocted holiday decorations that sprang from the liveliest of imaginations. Click here for more photos.
Kristina Morrow, financial aid quality assurance specialist, and her teammates created a “Nightmare before Christmas” theme with snowmen, skeletons, monsters and scary trees that practically leapt from the canvas of cubicle walls.
The ghoulish aspects of the wintry scene were leftovers from the team’s October effort, Morrow said.
“It was a good transition from Halloween,” Morrow said.
Janis Belcher, Office of Financial Aid Quality Assurance manager, said every year her team conceives a new theme. Planning and executing holiday decorations strengthens the team, she said.
Belcher was in charge of baking the papier-maché head of the character “Jack.”
“Jack’s head blew up in the oven at one point,” Belcher said. But despite the mishap, “this has truly been a collaborative effort.”
Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or [email protected].
