News about making a difference

Falmouth's calendar guys get lots of exposure

By JOHANNA CROSBY
STAFF WRITER

Falmouth's own calendar boys were willing to show some skin to raise money for a good cause.

They're not the sexy male Chippendale dancers, but they took the shirts off their backs - and sometimes a little bit more - to benefit local families in crisis.

The Men of Falmouth 2006 calendar features 19 bare-chested town residents and Falmouth High School graduates, ranging from 18 to 70 something, in playful poses.

Cover boy Carey Murphy, a Falmouth selectman, lathers up in an outdoor shower for April showers.

Dressed in kicky kilts, bartender Dana Flynn and David Jarvis appear with Tommy Leonard who peers out from behind the bar of the Quarterdeck Restaurant in an apron, tie and a Red Sox hat.

The most daring shot of all is February model Dr. Thomas Sbarra. The only thing the buff cardiologist wears is a stethoscope draped around his neck.

Lisa Deyo Asendorf got the idea for the calendar to raise funds for her nonprofit community-based organization, Wings for Falmouth Families, which provides financial support for Upper Cape families with school-age children coping with a medical emergency or tragedy. Asendorf was inspired by the Men of Wickford, R.I., calendar, a follow-up to the Ladies of Rylstone, England, calendar, which generated the movie ''Calendar Girls.''

''I thought, wouldn't it be fun and crazy to do and it would get us the attention we need,'' she says.

Asendorf hopes the calendars, which sell for $20, will raise $25,000.

She and her husband, Eric Asendorf, founded Wings two years ago to offer financial assistance so families can focus on the member who is ill instead of worrying about how to pay bills. Although health insurance covers medical costs, it does not cover spousal loss of work, childcare. housing, groceries and other living expenses, she says.

Wings gave one young family with a 15-month-old child $2,000 recently to help pay the mortgage and living expenses when the father died suddenly. A single mother of two, who is battling cancer and is unable to work, received $1,200 to help cover her mortgage.

Asendorf selected a cross-section of men from the community in different occupations to be calendar models. Some readily agreed, but others had to be coaxed.

Asendorf urged her husband, a financial advisor, to drape a long sheet over his body and strike Rodin's ''The Thinker'' pose for the month of September.

''It was a fun project,'' saysDaniel Webb, photo editor of the Falmouth Enterprise, who volunteered to take the photographs.

His aim was to capture the personality of each man. He tied many of the photos to their occupations.

''Initially, we thought of making the calendar risque,'' like a lot of similar calendars of everyday people, Webb says. ''But once we started shooting we decided to gear it to a family audience and go along the PG line.''

The most daring photo features Dr. Thomas Sbarra wearing only a stethoscope, standing behind a table in an operating room at Falmouth Hospital. ''He has the body to back it up,'' Webb says.

Webb took the 12 black-and-white portraits over the course of the year. Some are whimsical. For December three local barbers - Billy Tobia, Richard ''Dickie'' Stone, and Andy Dufresne - are pictured shearing trees.

Assendorf joined the photographer on most of the photo shoots to help the amateur models feel comfortable.

Initially Chris Megan, owner/publisher of On the Water Magazine and producer of the TV program ''Fishing New England,'' felt a little embarrassed about being a calendar model.

''I knew I was going to take major ribbing for it,'' he says.

With his wife's encouragement he signed onboard. ''When I found out about the cause I didn't care if people laughed at me,'' he says.

Megan was motivated by the death of a boy on his youth hockey team.

''I knew what his family went through,'' he says. ''If I could help other families I would do it.''

Megan posed for the month of June hanging over the side of a blue fin yacht in a pair of fishing overalls. He got the teasing he expected. ''But it's all in good fun,'' he says.

Earl Mills, Chief Flying Eagle of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, wasn't shy about appearing for the month of November in his tribal regalia pounding on a hand drum.

''I've been out in the dancing circle half-naked most of the time,'' he says with a laugh.

Mills chose to wear his traditional garb ''because that is who I am. I had to jimmy rig it because it was in disrepair.''

The photo was taken on a Woods Hole beach toward the end of the summer.

''It was on the chilly side,'' Mills recalls. Luckily, the shoot took only 20 minutes.

''It appears that you are nude so someone will buy the calendar,'' says Cubby Gummow who is teamed with his son Jeff ''Cub Gummow'' in the July photo ''But I don't care. I'm an old man,'' he says with a laugh. ''My wife thought it was funny and it's for a good cause.''

Selectman Murphy was flattered to be selected for the project.

''I had fun exposing myself, no pun intended,'' he says ''It was like going to the beach.''

Murphy describes the calendar as more artistic than provocative.

''I saw another men's calendar and they wore only tool belts,'' he says.

Men of Falmouth 2006 calendars and more information on Wings for Falmouth Families can be obtained by calling 508-457-7934 or visiting the Web site at www.WingsForFalmouth.com

Johanna Crosby can be reached at jcrosby@capecodonline.com.
(Published: December 26, 2005)

###

Return to News