On Movember

It’s now the end of November, and thus comes with it the end of Movember and its antics.

This was my third year participating in the fundraiser and my goal this year was just to top my last year’s total (when I raised $440.) This year I solicited friends and family and per usual, trying to be as low-pressure as I could but maintaining visibility by trying to create some kind content that people might wanna see and judge to be worthy of some kind of recognition of the effort.

I did some promo in the weeks leading up to November 1 when the activity kicks off. I put up some photos from last year, did some blaspheming of my record collection, some fun with photo apps, and then The Grow began.

The thing about The Grow is that it is unpleasant. I fell that the idea of the Movember Grow is that it’s the little personal sacrifice/effort, much like running a 5k or a rock-a-thon or whatever people do for fundraisers to be novel now, and it gets sponsored as a reward for your effort. There are rules (that a lot of guys skirt around in truth) that make The Grow more obvious (shave clean on Day 1, no goatees, no chops) and yes, you look awkward for the first few weeks. Some guys are lucky to fill in fast. I do not. On top of that, there is a surprising amount of blonde hair in my ‘stache, which I don’t get because I have rather dark hair. Very brown, at least. I had fairly blonde hair when I was young though. Maybe because the moustache is so young (concatenated, it’s only about 4 months old) it’s still quite young.

As usual, I got generous support from my family. We all want to give now and then and our family’s been touched by cancer, and I don’t do this kind of thing often so I suppose I don’t ask a lot. Thanks this year go to my parents, and bro and sis, Gary, Linette, Jim and Fiona who all made me feel better about the whole effort. As well, a lot of friends new and old threw in too. Some of them were supportive from the start, others were coerced with my new approach at a viral campaign this year (it worked!) – although I gotta say guys, the comments, sharing and all are really great (hundreds of views, dozens of comments, Facebook like sand re-shares) and thanks, but only like three donations came out of it! Come oooooooonnn… okay, enough. I don’t like guilt-for-charity any more than you guys do.

Anyway! This year was a great success for me, I crushed my total from last year and will probably finish in the Top 10 of my work team! This thing I find really interesting about Movember internationally is that Canada has really embraced the Movember campaign. Worldwide Canada has raised the most money per country by far (over $33 million, a $10+ million lead over Australia and the UK, triple the USA total) and we don’t even have the most participants!

Of course competition is not the key. All the money goes to the right place, research (etc.) and the awareness and promotion of getting regular checks is already reflected in my own friends and family. I want to thank every person who donated, emailed, comments, shared a photo, linked my page, re-tweeted a tweet and looked at my Movember page. You set the bar higher this year for me, so next year, I’m gonna have to work it to push it higher. 

Anyway, there's still time to donate if you're so inclined. It goes on weeks into December and if you think the effort was deserving, you can visit my MoSpace Page and donate online. You get an official receipt and everything! I will say though, I'm looking forward to shaving tomorrow. This thing is uncomfortable.

Stay healthy and thanks!

UPDATE: 3:40 pm EST Huge postscript thanks to Sarah, Iana and wee Jessica for their generous closing day donation and my first corporate sponsor ever, Flight Centre Cambridge! You guys have gotten me to almost DOUBLE my number from last year. I have to start planning the next campaign now if I ever hope to clear it. You guys are awesome.