This is the End?
Movember 30th can be called a lot of things. The end of a month, the accomplishment of more than 1 goal, a time to reflect on the kindness of people and some people will call it the end of Movember for this year. To me, Movember 30th is so much more.
I first heard about Movember in October and thought that this would be an awesome way to not only grow a super sweet moustache and not take any flack for it, but it is also a great buzz marketing way to raise money for a cause that has affected my family and is near and dear to me.
To be honest, it started out as just a fun way to not have to shave. I had no idea the reaction I would get from just growing a Moustache, but on this little Island I found people were really getting into it. A lot of others started growing their own Moustaches and collected money for themselves for MOvember. Not only did people learn about it in Antigua, but I also had people from Canada say that they heard about Movember through MoMoFoSho.com and had started their own fun way not to shave. This buzz marketing effect is what its all about. Although the main goal is to raise money for Prostate Cancer Research, it is also bringing awareness about the disease to the masses and letting people know that they should be checked for Prostate Cancer as it is 90% fixable if caught early.
I remember getting the first 2 donations from two girls, Vanessa and Chrissy, who I will say are good friends, but I had no idea they would be the first to donate. To be honest, until they donated I had no idea if I could even get 1 person to donate to the Moustache Cause. From those initial donations, it snowballed and half way through the month we had reached our first goal of $1000 USD in donations. Along with these donations I learned a friend of mine actually has prostate cancer, which just made me feel like I was doing the right thing by raising awareness.
So once we had reached our first goal of $1,000 USD, I bumped up the new goal to $1500 by the end of Movember. I won’t lie, the donations didn’t come as fast as the first half of the month, but I had faith that we would make it.
Yesterday, with a donation from my best friend from grade 2, John Boxall, donated $10 bringing the total to $1370.56. I have to say I was stoked on this donation. John and I were best of friends when we lived in Rossland as kids. I can remember vividly when his family moved away, as a kid I was crushed. Thank god for technology because in 2007 through facebook, I found my old best friend. This kid is a genius, I swear, I think a lot of my friends are innovative and incredibly smart, but I know John has a bright future. He is one of the founders of http://www.handimobility.ca/ and to me is a genius that can see into the future when it comes to technology. Thanks John for that donation!
Yesterday was also our party “I Love Moustache” in Antigua. I wasn’t to sure how this party was going to go. It was next door to a Abracadabra’s costume party and these parties are always packed. Around 10, we had 10 people at our party and at the peak we had about 40 people come by. This was great! I was so happy people came to support our party! I loved the owners of the club that we held it at, Jill and Carolyn. They both drew on two sexy Moustaches and helped us support the Mo and our cause!
The party was great! In Antigua, all you get to hear is Dance Hall and Reggae. I love Reggae as much as the next person but I also LOVE indie music and electro. So my Mo Bro Sam and I played some awesome music and actually had people dancing to it! Thats another accomplishment, that probably can only be accomplished with the power of a Moustache!
We set up a bucket at the bar and collected donations and we managed to raise $142 at the party pushing us over our $1500 goal right in the nick of time!
I have learned so much over the past month and have felt that I have helped accomplish something huge. But MOvember isn’t about me, it is about everyone! I want to take this time to thank everyone that has supported Movember! Without you we couldn’t have raised over $12,000,000 world wide in a month. So a round of applause for everyone for helping raise awareness and money for Prostate Cancer.
As I mentioned, Movember can be called a lot of things, but to me, it is definitely not the end of anything, but only the beginning.
Happy Movember!
Greg









































