In October, you see your friends dressing up as fairies or cold-blood vampires. In December, you see people on TV dressed in Santa’s red and white tuque.
How about November?
We see teachers sprout bushy beards and exaggerated mustaches. What’s going on?
Movember is an annual, month-long event that aims to raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer and other male cancers, and increase early cancer detection and diagnosis. Initiated by the Movember Foundation charity in 2004 in Australia, Movember found its way to Taiwan in 2007.
Since then, the slogan “Let’s change the face of men’s health!” has resounded all over the world and even here at TAS.
Starting Tuesday, Cancer Society has been selling oatmeal cookies and their own mustache stickers, which you can use to decorate your laptop. The money raised will be donated to the Movember Foundation charity.
Besides selling stickers, Movember also involves the growing of moustaches during the month of November to help raise awareness of men’s health issues. Because of this, several teachers at TAS have begun to grow their beards or moustaches in support of the event.
Annie C. (11), an officer of Cancer Society, says, “I love how in this month, you see a lot of male teachers growing their mustaches and beards! When people start seeing these mustaches and beards, they realize that it’s Movember!”
“It’s good to raise awareness in men’s health issues and get people involved in research for fighting cancer,” Mr. Montgomery, US English teacher, says.
Mr. Sloan, the US IT Director, also says jokingly, “It’s good to raise money for cancer, but somebody said I looked scruffy… I’ll take it as ‘not looking so good’.”