The organizers of the Goat Canucks Goat campaign are also selling T-shirts to raise funds. (Goat Canucks Goat)

The Vancouver Canucks may be out of the playoffs, but their efforts will live on — in Africa — after some charity-minded fans decided to do more than grow a beard to support the team.

Instead of just growing goatees per the NHL post-season tradition of not trimming facial hair, the hockey-mad fans decided to donate a goat to an African village for each playoff win. The original goal was to donate up to 16 goats worth $25 each if the Canucks won the 16 games necessary to capture the Stanley Cup.

After transforming the chant "Go Canucks Go!" to "Goat Canucks Goat!" the campaign hit the internet and became far more successful than the Canucks playoff run. While the team was knocked out by the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday after a mere six playoff wins, by Thursday fans had donated $17,000 — enough for 684 goats — to the campaign.

Villagers welcome new herd

In east Kenya, villagers were singing the praises of the Canucks and their fans, despite the team's rocky record, as they awaited the arrival of their new herd of goats.

"I am so grateful to the Canadians for sending goats," Panina Kamau, a farmer in the village of Ulungu and a mother of 10, told CBC News.

"We can use the milk to feed the children and sell the offspring to pay for school fees," Kamau said.

Fred Witteween, Kenya director of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee and a self-described long-suffering Canucks fan from B.C., said the Canucks goats were an inexpensive way of helping families in Africa and should arrive in Kenya's desperately poor Turkana region by July.

"Goats are easy to take care of and eat almost anything, and multiply quickly, so we can keep distributing them to the rest of the community," he said.

Better luck next year

Joel Nagtegaal, the Canucks fan who came up with the idea, was stunned by its success. "It's gone way beyond anything I ever expected," he said after his team was bounced from the Stanley Cup playoffs this week.

Mathew Biemers, a Canucks fan from Langley, B.C., who donated a goat said: "It's about what Canada is all about:... loving hockey and taking care of your neighbour, whether that's locally or globally."

The Kenyan villagers say next season the Canucks can expect better success in their playoff run, maybe enough to finally win the Stanley Cup that has evaded the team for nearly 40 years.

"We are going to pray for them very hard," Kamau said, "This is going to be the last time the Canucks will lose. Next year they will win 100 games."