MAYBOLE Parish minister the Rev Dave Whiteman came up with a novel way to raise cash for Cairn Primary School. For after a school assembly, he told pupils he was going to have his beard shaved off! And hairdresser Mrs Lynsay Jess halted the operation at different stages to let pupils decide if she should continue. The pupils obviously thought she should, and Mr Whiteman ended up clean-shaven! “Some people don’t recognise me now,” admits the Church of Scotland minister with the Geordie accent. For he hadn’t been without a beard since 1986, and even his own children hadn’t seen him clean-shaven. But Mr Whiteman confessed: “It was a lot of fun. “And I’m especially pleased when people tell me how young I look now!” Cairn Primary head teacher Mrs Barbara Anderson thanked school chaplain Mr Whiteman for his fundraising idea. And everyone is waiting to see how much cash comes back from sponsor sheets.