Written by Cat N. , Edited by Pranav C. and Dania Z.
November? More like Movember!
November, the lovely, chilly month that sits in between October and December. The time for you to rest after the Halloween fun, while also dragging on the wait until winter break. But what’s so special about November? A lot of people don’t talk about their excitement for this month, let alone have any, so what makes November unique? There’s not a lot that comes to mind but there’s one thing for sure, Movember of course! Movember is an event that takes place every year in this month. It’s an event that encourages us to grow moustaches for a good cause. You may be thinking, what is Movember exactly? What is it about? To figure out all this, we need to start at the beginning.
In 2003, two friends, Garone and Lucke Slattery, were having a quiet conversation at the Gypsy Bar in Melbourne, Australia, when the issue of fashion trends came up. They noticed that the moustache had fallen out of style, as not many people were seen growing them. Joking around, they thought it’d be fun to bring it back, but little did they know, they’d be doing much more. Using inspiration from a friend’s mother, who was fundraising for breast cancer, they made the event a campaign for men’s health and prostate cancer. They researched the topic and created the rules for what they would call Movember. The rules were simple: they charged ten dollars for each participant to grow a moustache, and the money would go to a charity or a foundation that helped with men’s mental health issues and or prostate cancer. Once that was settled, they sent emails around for those who were interested, titled: “Are you man enough to be a man?” For their first attempt, they got about 30 participants, who had so much enthusiasm, they decided to formalise the concept in 2004.
They did Movember for the next few years with some additional new features; including a logo developed by Travis Garone, a registered website and company done by Adam Garone, their friend Justin Coghlan starting things off in Queensland, and establishing a foundation.
Movember has been around since 2003 and is still going strong. Thousands of people participate every year and more money is being raised. Throughout the years, the money has been used to fund many things. They’ve funded inventions, therapies, diagnostic tests for prostate cancer, projects for testicular cancer, and will continue to do so. Not to mention the long list of partnerships they’ve had, including Beyondblue(2006), FEFOC(2007), Irish Cancer Society(2007). Along with their first partnership, the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia(2005), and later, in addition to the countless other Prostate Cancer Foundations in New Zealand(2006), the United states of America(2007), Canada(2007), the United Kingdom(2007), and many more. The Movember community is expanding by the year and they’ve done some incredible things. Multiple of them have led mental health projects while also spreading word about Movember, getting more and more people to participate. Movember has made such a huge impact that in 2009, their funds for the Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Centre helped them make a breakthrough in research, discovering 25+ of different types of prostate cancer. Along their journey they’ve made numerous achievements, such as uniting with the National Breast Cancer Foundation Australia(2016), ranking in top 100 NGOs in the world by Global Journal (2011), and getting awarded the Social Force of the year award from GQ Australia magazine (2013). Their future is shining bright, with a plan of being the official delivery partner for the Rugby League World Cup 2021, which was postponed to 2022.
And that’s that! Movember has had one wild ride! Starting off as just an idea, with only 30 participants growing a moustache to up to thousands, additionally with their amazing community and outstanding awards! All this for the cause of men’s mental and cancer issues. They have a lot going for them, and they sure won’t be stopping anytime soon! So what about you? Why not grow a moustache this month? Maybe even donate to the Movember website? But most importantly, let’s try and spread word about Movember- the more the merrier! I love how you concluded your article!
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