Lip rug, soup strainer, caterpillar, stache and tache – the infamous facial hair comes with an endless array of nicknames – and shapes. It might have had its peak a couple of decades ago, but thanks to Ron Swanson, hipsters – and more importantly Movember – the mustache is back and here to stay whether you like it or not. Luckily for those women (and men) who are lesser fans of the lip tickler; the stache is usually sprouted just within the month of November – or Movember, as we like to call it here at Stylight.
Movember has quite quickly become one of those charity happenings that people just know about, and are happy to contribute towards. But if you ask anyone about its origins or the correlation between men’s health and growing a mustache for just one month, the majority would be unable to give you a straight answer.
Was it invented by a group of hipsters as a drunken dare? Is Ron Swanson’s über masculine charisma really that influential? Or is it simply an archaic proof on manhood?
How it all started:
The Movember Origin
Rumor has it the mysterious origin of Movember started with a group of Australian men and a wish to make mustaches fashionable again. Somewhere in a pub in Adelaide back in 2003, the group of mates started to question the cyclical nature of fashion and why the mustache was yet to make a comeback. As an experiment (without charitable cause) the men got their other friends to join them and decided to leave their lips untamed to see who could grow the best mustache during the month of November, which they aptly renamed Movember. The idea caught on, and the following year they decided to use their “growing powers” for a good cause. Knowing that ‘old-school, macho men’ often shied away from regular visits to the Dr and health check-ups, they came to the conclusion that growing a mustache in all its masculine glory was a brilliant way of raising awareness around men’s health and to raise money for charity.
Now over a decade later, Movember has become a global charity and men (and women) around the world do their best to support the cause come November. Men, obviously, can grow out their facial hair, women however, can participate in the MOVE challenge by moving for 30 min every day in November – and of course, everybody can contribute by fundraising, donating and spreading the message of Movember.
Stylight & Movember aka
We Love Mustache
At Stylight we have taken the challenge even further and made Movember 2015 a month-long annual happening filled with original fund-raising events, cake sales and fun challenges – all topped off with our famous and fabulous End of Movember Parté! For most Stylighters, Movember has become more than just a quest for raising the most money or growing the best stache. Movember has grown into a month that boosts team spirit, leaves room for creative fundraising ideas and of course, offers our employees plenty of baked good and delicious drinks for sale – all in the name of charity. And just to top it all off we were even the official partner of the Movember Foundation this year!
This year, Stylighters most creative fundraising ideas led to us staging a cupcake delivery service, a ‘Movemburger’ lunch special twice weekly, drink specials such as a Mule Bar and an ‘Italy vs France Friday’ bar challenge, the Mo-anizer and stunning latte art during our ‘MO’cca’ coffee break.
Every idea brought in valuable money to the Movember bash and proved that Stylighters were more than happy to dish out for a delicious burger lunch or a glass of steaming hot mulled wine on a chilly winter evening. From the Mobile team to the Finance department and even our interns, every single Stylighter contributed through donating their time, ideas and money – and together as the #StylightMo Team we raised over € 6,727 towards men’s health and the Movember Foundation!
The Movember Parté
And what better way to wrap up an amazingly successful month than with one of our (in)famous Stylight parties?! This was our first event staged without a guestlist and Stylighters, friends and just about whoever fancied joining, could gain entry to our awesome party just by purchasing a ticket at the door – with all the proceeds going to the Movember Foundation! Once inside, the partygoers could bust a move to the suave jazzy notes of live performing band Jazzrausch as well as guest DJ #dertypmitdembart, grab a delicious whisky-infused cocktail from the Jameson bar or perfect their party makeup over at The Browery. Thanks to these and other amazing sponsors such as Zuckerherz, WAMS socks and Barber House, the party exceeded all expectations and raised over € 3,500 towards the Movember Foundation.
If that wasn’t a victory in itself, the collective donation of the fundraising and the Movember Parté left us at number 1 for the German national ranking of teams that raised the most money for the Movember Foundation (as of December 1st)! Although Stylight is no newbie when it comes to raising money for charity, and previous fundraisers include football for the Nicolaidis Young Wings foundation, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Wear it Pink for breast cancer and our very own Purple Day for epilepsy!
Since 2003 over 1,000 programmes have gone on to be founded and a breathtaking €485m raised through the Movember Foundation! And to think it all started with a group of slightly inebriated Australians…
|By Ellen Egeland|
