Police with beards
You wouldn’t think it. Most police agencies require on-duty officers to be clean-shaven. The Wilton Police Department does, too, but this year the Wilton Police Commission and Wilton Police Chief Robert Crosby voted to allow Wilton police officers to grow facial hair during the months of November and December, to raise awareness of men’s health issues. For each month they planned to go unshaven, officers had to donate $50 to St.Vincent’s SWIM Across the Sound in order to be able to participate. Pictured here in front of Wilton police headquarters with beards a month old, from left, are Officer Frank Razzaia, Officer Steve Zawacki, Officer Rob Smaldone, Lt. Rob Cipolla, School Resource Officer Richard Ross, Officer Eric Patenaude, and Sgt. Dave Hartman. St. Vincent’s SWIM Across the Sound is a charitable organization run by St. Vincent’s Medical Center Foundation. Since 1987, it has provided cancer education, screening and prevention programs at low or no cost for the underinsured and uninsured. Additionally, SWIM helps individual cancer patients on a case-by-case basis who have specific needs, offering funding for wigs and prostheses, medication assistance, free transportation to treatments and appointments, day care scholarships, and support groups. — Hayden Turek photo