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This story online at: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07261.htm
07261 May 4, 2007
Dye trying Pastors undergo extreme makeover to raise funds for new buses
by Jerry Van Marter
The Rev. Maynard Pittendreigh undergoes his extreme makeover.LILBURN, GA — The Rev. Maynard Pittendreigh freely admits that “it may not have been the best idea I’ve ever had.”
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church here had only raised $8,000 of its $50,000 goal to replace two aging church vans with two new 14-passenger vehicles. And it had taken a year to raise that much.
So Pittendreigh, the church’s pastor, challenged the congregation to raise $50,000 in one month and promised to let the youth group dye his hair whatever color (or colors) they wished if the new fund-raising scheme was successful.
The prospect of Pittendreigh’s extreme makeover obviously struck a responsive chord.
An anonymous donor offered to match every donation to the campaign dollar-for-dollar. “It was like the pizza coupons in the newspapers,” Pittendreigh said. “Buy one (bus), get one free.”
A week later, another church member gave the church a 14-passenger van … on two conditions, Pittendreigh told the Presbyterian News Service.
“He was a coach and the van had two stripes on it in the school’s colors and he insisted that the stripes had to stay,” Pittendreigh mused. “The other condition was that the “Dye the Pastors’ Hair Campaign” continue because the donor felt a shelter was needed for the buses — at a cost of another $50,000.
Evans shows off his new mostly green Mohawk. By this time, Good Shepherd’s associate pastor, the Rev. Joe Evans, was in on the dye job. “He was real enthusiastic about it, but I told him he should discuss it with his wife first,” Pittendreigh said. “I learned later she found about it in the church bulletin.”
Needless to say, the congregation met the challenge. The success of the campaign was announced on Easter Sunday. The following Saturday night, April 14, 40 members of the youth group, some bringing friends to witness the occasion, had their day. Each one had an opportunity to add their own personal dye-ing touch.
By order of his wife, however, Pittendreigh’s beard was off limits. “Thank goodness some of us have some sanity,” he commented. “Without my beard, my face is like sandpaper.”
The next morning, Pittendreigh and Evans stepped out of the choir room and into the Sanctuary — knit caps pulled firmly over their heads. “We said they could dye our hair, but we never said we had to show it to anybody,” Pittendreigh laughed.
But on cue, they removed the caps and flashed their new hairstyles — dueling Mohawks, Evans’ mostly green and Pittendreigh’s mostly hot pink.
The Rev. Maynard Pittendreigh and the Rev. Joe Evans show off their new dye jobs to their congregation. “It’s not often I get a standing ovation just for entering the sanctuary at the beginning of worship,” Pittendreigh said.
After the church’s youth director described Pittendreigh’s hair as “looking diseased,” a number of church members offered various hair remedies, including one called “Color Oops!” Pittendreigh said.
“The most important lesson I learned in all this,” he said, “is: Never use a product with the word ‘oops’ in it.”
Photo courtesy of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church.
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