Riverside Secondary once again took part in the Movember challenge. Teacher sponsor, Mr. Cary Brett and IDS Leadership teacher Ms. Adrienne Chapell helped grade 12 student, Emily Shannon lead a team of IDS Leadership students to make the fundraiser happen despite COVID-19 restrictions.
Mr. Brett saw an opportunity to make the fundraiser a reality. Shannon joined him, and together with the IDS Leadership group brainstormed ideas that were COVID-19 safe. Brett saw the fundraiser as an important activity for the culture of the school; many activities have not been able to go ahead. As well, Movember is a worthy cause and important movement to bring awareness to men’s mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.
The Movember campaign has done much to bring awareness to Men’s mental health, prostate, and testicular cancer. It can be a personal subject with most men and is often not talked about enough amongst family, friends, and society in general. Globally testicular cancer is the most common cancer among men 15-39 years of age. Across the world, one man dies by suicide every minute of the day, with males accounting for 75% of all suicides.
Shannon encouraged students and teachers to get involved. “For those who are able (Mo Bro’s) growing facial hair is a great way to show your support towards finding a cure for men’s cancer and improving overall mental health in men. For all of you Mo Sisters or Non-Binary Mo’s, you can still contribute to the cause in other ways!”
Some of the activities that the students organized were the ‘pin the mustache’ on the administrator and Trivia questions on social media. The students also made masks with mustaches on them and sold them to students for $5 to raise money for the cause,” said Shannon. The masks were made by the IDS Leadership students in the Library Maker Space using the cricket machine. 
Mr. Brett has been participating with the Movember Challenges since being on his UBC Volleyball athletics team; they would do fun fundraisers and events such as ‘best mustaches,’ ‘worst mustaches’ and just having fun with the challenge. He wanted Riverside to do the same despite the limitations that COVID-19 presented.
The Riverside Movember campaign has already raised $310, which will be donated to the official Movember website. You can still donate to this worthy cause at the Riverside account for Movember (Link).
