VIDEO: Realtor gives half his beard to the KGH Foundation and it raises thousands

Kelowna Realtor Darryl Reuter came to the KGH Foundation willing to shave his beard off for the cause, but he stopped half-way. And now he has to live with the results until Canada Day.

"Do you think I'm going to start a trend?" asked Reuter outside Kelowna General Hospital today, while sporting a bushy beard covering exactly half of his face.

Last weekend, he was dropping off a cheque for $7,000 from his real estate team. He was willing to shave off his beard if it would bring in more cash. Then another realtor agreed to pony up if Reuter would shave off half of his beard.

"We ended up raising another 6 or 7 thousand I'm stuck with this 'til Canada Day," he said with a smile.

It's all part of the Day of Giving event hosted by the KGH Foundation, which raises hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for much-needed improvements at the hospital.

"I think that's pretty amazing," said foundation CEO Doug Rankmore, when asked about the beard. "That's one of the amazing examples of the level of gratitude and giving here."

He said his organization has some new priorities that have emerged along with the pandemic. "One of the things that this pandemic has done is really create a new need at the hospital, a new way to do health care," Rankmore explained.

"There's been a significant number of new pieces of equipment that are required to keep people safe, to avoid cross-contamination and just deal with healthcare in this new reality."

Despite all the stresses that people have been under, hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations were pouring in as we spoke to Rankmore outside the hospital. "It's an amazingly generous community," he said.

During the Day of Giving, donations to the hospital foundation are matched dollar for dollar.

Late this morning, the campaign had already collected nearly $300,000.