Put away your trimmers and get out your wallets, because Movember isn’t over yet.
“The last few days are were you really see the final push for Movember,” said Samantha Barnett, leader for the Southern Georgian Bay Firefighters team.
Movember is a fundraising event held each November to raise awareness and support towards prostate cancer, testicular cancer, men’s mental health, and suicide prevention. The charity initiative involves the growth of moustaches and temporary tattoos of moustaches as a visual mark, and includes donation drives and inspiring motivational activities like running as a means to show support from everyone involved.
Barnett approached Tiny council earlier this month to request assistance through the municipal finance department to keep a transparent and open account of boot drive donations during the campaign.
On Friday, $15,600 of boot drive funds from Wal-Mart, Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Bourgeois Hyundai events over the month were formally donated by the team to bring their current amount to $40,000 total.
“The boot drives are always impactful and provide face-to-face interactions. It encourages members of our participating departments to get out and have conversations surrounding mens health,” said Barnett.
“There are plenty of efforts for the next coming days, it’s essentially a rally this weekend. Our community members are becoming more familiar with Movember by this time and are happy to donate/participate.”
The Southern Georgian Bay Firefighters team can be found Saturday at Midland Walmart and Superstore locations.
Barnett added that sponsor funds would be added shortly, as will pledged donations from the Mo-Bros and Mo-Sistas as a huge team effort.
“Our community members are encouraged to come out and learn about Movember, one of the biggest keys for success in the fundraiser is the awareness component,” Barnett added. “So even if people don’t want to donate – always appreciated though – we are still wanting to have a conversation to highlight mens health.”
The Southern Georgian Bay Firefighters team has set a target goal of $45,000 for this year’s campaign; in 2021, the Tiny Township team raised $77,000 to rank as the top fire department in North America.
To learn more on how to contribute to the Southern Georgian Bay Firefighters fundraising team, visit their pledge page on the Movember website.
