Razors and shaving cream are going to be collecting dust in medicine cabinets around Eugene and across the nation as men get scruffy this month.
However, University students participating in “Movember,” also known as “No-Shave November,” will grow mustaches in order to raise money and awareness for men’s health issues.
Men participating in Movember have to start clean-shaven Nov. 1 and grow a mustache for the entire month, according to the Movember website. Movember began in Australia with a group of friends whose goal was to “bring the mustache back,” and raise awareness and money for men’s health. “The Mo Bros” wanted to create a global men’s health movement.
Last year, global donors raised $42 million U.S. dollars for Movember’s beneficiary partners located throughout the world.
Movember slowly gained popularity throughout the world and landed at the University last year. MBA graduate student Matt Geschke and his classmates, graduate students J.J. Owen, Rishi Mukhi, Wes Petticrew and Judy Sheldon, participated in Movember last school year as part of their entrepreneurship class and raised $1,200 for Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
This year, the University Movember organizers lobbied more people on campus to be involved. Men from fraternities, Colleges Against Cancer and the football, tennis, track and field, and baseball teams have signed up. The University Movember network is also selling T-shirts at the Duck Store.
“This is a more concerted, campus-wide effort,” Mukhi said.
Geschke, besides being an University organizer for Movember, is also a graduate teaching fellow for O Heroes, the community service branch of the Oregon athletic department that engages student-athletes in community service projects.
The University’s Movember network currently has nearly 100 people signed up and has raised $1,100. The goal is to sign up 500 people and raise $25,000.
Family members, friends and community members make donations on the Movember website to the team or individual of their choice. Participants can also donate money.
“This is to basically raise as much money and awareness about men’s health issues as possible,” Geschke said.
Cancer hits close to home for Geschke.
“My brother is a cancer survivor, so it’s definitely important for me,” he said.
Geschke added that organizations like the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation are amazing for women’s health issues, but men’s health issues need more awareness.
“I think men’s health issues are way behind.” Geschke said. “This is an opportunity to excel that process.”
Oregon Health and Science University in Portland is partnering with the University’s network on the Movember website to help raise money. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, director of the youth oncology program at OHSU, said cancer is the number one natural cause of death in people ages 15-39.
“We recognize that young adults don’t think about cancer until it impacts them,” he said.
Hayes-Lattin supports initiatives like Movember that raise awareness in people who do not normally talk about cancer.
“It’s a fun and easy way to get engaged and learn about cancer at the same time,” Hayes-Lattin said.
Interested participants can sign up on the University’s network page on the official Movember website. All donations go to Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
Men’s Health Awareness
• Cancer is the number one natural cause of death in people ages 15-39
• In 2006, 203,415 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 28,372 men died from it
• Movember raised $42 million worldwide in November 2009 for men’s health
Information from Movember, Oregon Health and Science University, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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