In The Eye(brows) of the beholder
Talk to Si Burgher for any more than 39 seconds and the one thing that strikes you - besides his home-spun, sometimes boisterous, yet caring demeanor - is his set of eyebrows.
Burgher’s eyebrows have been described as ‘Greene County’s Longest Orbital Locks’ by more than one person. They are stringy, long and grow in at least 38 different directions at the same time.
That is, until Tuesday at the noon meeting of the Bloomfield Rotary Club.
A couple of months ago, fellow Bloomfield Rotarians Mark Barkley and Nick Skinner ‘auctioned off’ the right to shave Burgher’s famous eyebrows at the club’s annual charity auction.
The original goal was $300, with Barkley and Skinner kicking in the first hundred bucks each.
Then the bids started rolling in. Nearly every Rotarian - and even Burgher’s own children got in on the act.
By Tuesday at noon, the local club had collected some $1,600 to help fund Rotary International’s polio erradication efforts.
“My father-in-law is a physician, and he said that the one place they won’t shave you before surgery is the eyebrows,” said Assistant District Rotary District Gov. Mike Roth. “That’s because in a large percentage of people they never grow back.”
He said he informed Burgher of this fact and was told, “I don’t think that will be a problem.”
Before having his eyebrows shorn by members of the club, a teary-eyed Burgher thanked the crowd, noting that he was overwhelmed with the response to the charity idea and proud of his local club for helping stamp out polio in the world.
Burgher has been awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship on numerous occasions for his multiple contributions to Rotary.
He has been a member of Rotary since 1978 - 14 of those years in Bloomfield.