Best Fans in the World
Cleft lips and palates can make it hard for the person who suffers from them to speak and eat, so the family made the decision to get Mia all of the surgeries that they could that might possibly make things easier for her. In 2014, the Robertson clan came together as she prepared for a bone graft surgery. But the family members weren’t the only ones who rallied.
They reached out to fans, who in turn completely amazed them with the amount of support they offered. Letters and thoughtful words on social media came pouring in, but the fans didn’t stop there. They did something truly amazing for Mia and others who suffer from the same thing.
The Reason for It All
The long bushy beard is pretty much a staple on the male side of the Robertson family. When someone mentions "Duck Dynasty," it’s hard not to imagine Phil, Jase, and the others sporting their wily, speckled gray and brown beards while they crawl through the bush.
So, it came as a shock when Jase told the world that he was going to get rid of his beloved facial strands. No one could understand why on Earth he would let go of such a trademark feature of his. That is until he confessed his reasons for his decision to bare it all.
Complicated Birth
Jase’s daughter, Mia Robertson, gave the family quite a scare when she was born. She had several complications, including a cleft lip and palate. These conditions occur when a portion of the oral area is malformed, and typically begins during the pregnancy. Although it’s not something that any parent wants their child to have to go through, it is luckily something that can be corrected with surgeries.
By the time she was 10 years old, Mia had undergone 5 separate procedures, the first of which took place when she was just a few months old. All of the family members really rallied together to support Mia and her parents during those scary times.
Mia Moo
The family formed a charity that they dubbed the “Mia Moo Fund,” to raise money for cleft lip and palate research and cures. After experiencing exactly how much the condition could affect someone and their family, they wanted to do as much as they possibly could to help anyone else that was struggling with it, too.
According to the organization's website, the foundation cares about "finding resources and new technologies that will help decrease the chances of children being born with cleft lip/cleft palate and eliminating it altogether." But what exactly does the Mia Moo Fund have to do with Jase shaving his beard? As it turns out, quite a bit, actually…
Raising the Necessary Funds
For the foundation to get off the ground, they needed to put down a pretty substantial amount of money. Fans helped them reach the magic number through their incredibly generous donations as Jase pledged to shave it all off. Everyone was very interested in seeing what their favorite Duck Dynasty boy looked like without all of that fuzz covering up his face. But it wasn’t just the fans that were excited about the prospect of seeing him bare it all.
Jase’s wife, Missy, was pretty thrilled about the beard coming off, too. When the couple had first gotten together, it wasn’t nearly as long, and she hadn’t seen him without the beard for over 7 years! Jase made the announcement that if they saw $100,000 in donations, he would shave it all off. Would they be able to make it happen?