As usual, it all started with a dare. A friend of Hasan Hai, the founder of the club, posted a picture of a buff bearded guy donning a mermaid’s tail on Facebook inviting Hai to do the same. One thing lead to another, and in about three days Hai had over 70 people volunteering to pose for a good cause dressed as mermen.
They called themselves MerB’ys – a compound of ‘mermaid’ and ‘b’y’ a Newfoundland term for ‘boy or ‘buddy’ -, took their tops off, got into colorful mermaid gear, and graciously lied down to wave, flirt, and blow kisses to the camera. And, apparently, that was exactly what the audiences wanted. Hasan Hai claimed that at first, the group had “a goal of selling maybe five hundred, possibly a thousand if we’re really fortunate,” but the number of sales went through the roof, completely exceeding their expectations. They sold over 14 000 copies of MerB’ys calendars in 40 different countries.
“I know it’s going to help a lot of people for a very long time to access our services,” assured Erin Gallant, the creator of Spirit Horse NL, who was shocked to see the amount of money raised with the help of this calendar.
Scroll down to see the pictures from the calendar and the behind-the-scenes.
