When they knew Jeremy Hensley was diagnosed with an inoperable cancer last year, his group of friends signed up to pose for a calendar. Not just an ordinary calendar, but a "dad-bod" calendar in an effort to raise funds for Jeremy's treatment.
BuzzFeed Community featured a fundraising project organized by a group of men in Florida to help their friend, Hensley, who was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor in his brain stem last year. The group of friends thought of a novel idea to raise funds: create a calendar that will feature "dad bods."
Kaley Novicki, who runs Novastella Imagery, set up an event on Facebook which was just initially composed of 17 members. The goal was just simple: take photos of men showing off their magnificent beer bellies and sexy dad bods, feature them on a calendar, and sell the calendars to raise funds for Jeremy's medical expenses, Fox News says.
People further narrates that Novicki then scheduled an initial photo shoot at her parent's house on Saturday, April 2. During the photo shoot, Novicki described the day as something that she thought would not turn out well: the weather was awful and Jeremy was rushed to the hospital with an excruciating migraine. Remarkably, the support just poured in.
A photo posted by Dad-Bod Calendar Clique (@dbcclique) on Apr 6, 2016 at 6:26pm PDT
What was more amazing was that Jeremy was there for the photo shoot. Even after being hospitalized, he still showed up to support the people who supported him. In the end, Novicki's group was able to take photos enough to cover nine months out of a year. That prompted the group to turn the event into a Facebook page called "Dad-Bod Calendar Clique."
Dad-Bod Calendar Clique gained so much attention that from a merely 17 members, they now grew to over 21,000 members as of Thursday. The group page was initially set up for those who showed up during the photo shoot, those who wanted to buy the calendar, and those who just wanted to participate in the group's activity. Within 48 hours, the group gained thousands of members.
"This is turning out to be bigger than we ever imagined," Novicki wrote. "Not only that, but Jeremy's story is being spread, and he's receiving more support than he ever dreamt of."
There will be another photo shoot scheduled this April 17. People are also sending in their own photos, which they hope will be a part of the calendar. Novicki said that despite needing love and support, Jeremy wanted to give something back in return for the support. Check out Jeremy with his friends being interviewed on Fox and Friends:
