An Okotoks teacher is still carrying on the Movember tradition.
Virgil Green, welding instructor at Foothills Composite High School, said he’s just trying in his own way to keep a good thing going.
“Originally Movember around our building was done as a tribute to our lost friend, Wes Hollings,” said Green.
Movember is an annual month-long event wherein men sport moustaches through the month of November in the name of raising awareness and dollars for men’s health issues, including testicular and prostate cancer.
Green said it went full-steam ahead for a few years at the Comp before it started to peter out. He credits a lot of the early success to past librarian Hazel Isaac, who had spearheaded the campaign at the school.
Now, he is trying to get the ball rolling again at the high school.
“I’m just trying to relive the glory days, and I look really good with a moustache, so why not?” said Green. “But really I think the Movember movement has lost some steam in the last couple of years. It was fun right off the bat.”
He said the yearly campaign does more than allow him an excuse to grow the moustache his wife despises. It also allows him to reach out to young men in his classes about the importance of men’s health.
“It gives me a nice avenue to tackle that with my young boys and talk mental health, and talk physical health,” said Green. “It’s a doorway that opens up.”
He tries to encourage his students to join him every year, and usually gets quite a few guys growing “cheesy Grade 12 moustaches,” he said.
Green will be raising funds through the Movember campaign at ca.movember.com, where groups and individuals can register and collect donations for the cause. He also takes up a coin collection in his classes and receives donations from other staff and students at the school, he said.
Watch for weekly photo updates on the progression of Green’s moustache. The Wheel will follow up with Green at the end of the campaign.
