Local photographer raises $19K for cancer organization with ‘Hot and Hairy’ calendar shoot

Showing off some skin for a good cause

SANDPOINT, IDAHO. — A dozen Sandpoint men are showing off some skin in a calendar shoot, all for a good cause. A North Idaho photographer has raised almost $20,000 from a calendar she created featuring local men. The theme of that calendar is a little unusual.

Knowing the money from her calendar shoot was going to help a local organization that helped cancer patients, Tanyia Oulman wanted to set herself up for success. She needed something that would bring people in and donate.

That’s why she didn’t just arrange a regular photo shoot, she wanted a cool shoot… a ‘hot and hairy’ shoot – raunchy poses, suggestive stares, and giving the popular ‘smize’ to the camera. It’s all in the calendar.

“It was just incredible,” said Oulman, the photographer of the calendar.

Don’t judge a calendar by its cover, especially the Hot and Hairy calendar.

“Lots of [Pabst Blue Ribbon] was had in these shoots for sure,” Oulman said.

These men didn’t show off the goods for nothing.

“We had people walking by and seeing this, and they were shocked like, what is going on,” Oulman said.

The cheeky calendars raised $19,000. All the money went straight to Community Cancer Services in Sandpoint.

“When you’re in your mid-30s and somebody tells you you’re going to die in a few years and you’ve got a toddler,” said Gabriel Cooke, a cancer patient who’s been going to Community Cancer Services since 2018.

Cooke looks better since his transplant, but it hasn’t always been this way.

“Better than six months ago, I had no hair and I was 55 pounds lighter,” Cooke said.

CCS has been supporting Cooke in his fight against cancer since 2018.

“I couldn’t work anymore, I was going through so much treatment. I was in extreme physical pain,” Cooke said.

He said that $19,000 dollars goes towards a lot of good for community members suffering from an awful disease.

“They’re putting food on our tables, they’re helping pay our bills, they’re getting us to the hospital and gas,” Cooke said.

If CCS didn’t have his back, who knows how life with cancer would have treated him.

“I wouldn’t have had an outlet, and I probably just would’ve given up all hope and been in complete despair. I have no idea how I would have fed my son. There’s been times where if it hadn’t been for the grocery cards they give me to help, there would have been no food on the table,” Cooke said.

Never judge a calendar by its pages, because the real story is on its cover.

“Nobody goes unscathed from cancer. Cancer affects all of us. They just put their all into it,” Oulman said.

The Hot and Hairy calendars are only for 2020. Oulman said there is another calendar project in the works. She promised it’ll be just as funny, if not, more amusing than this year’s calendar. This next one will also benefit Community Cancer Services.

If you’d like to purchase a Hot and Hairy calendar, you can do so here.

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