At the end of the first week of November, I asked Neil if he wanted to sign up for “Movember” to raise money for prostate cancer awareness, research and treatment. We know some guys who have been successfully treated for prostate cancer, and I suggested it would be good to keep the conversation going and bring awareness to men’s health issues.
Now, I’m not a fan of facial hair, but Neil is, and he often sports a beard or mustache. You can imagine his delight when, for the first time in our relationship, he got my full and complete endorsement to grow a ‘mo! Naturally, he jumped at the chance.
‘Mo for Neil. ‘Mo-money for “Movember”. Bi-win!
We set up a ‘Mo Space, created a team Team Moustaž, invited people to join and sent-out lots of Emails to request donations. Neil shaved his beard and started growing his ‘mo in the second week of November, and we posted pics of the progress on our ‘Mo Space.
At first it was a bit disappointing because so few people we sent requests to donated. We would have been happy with several $10 donations. You know the old saying, “Penny upon penny makes many.” But, times are tough and people have to feel compelled to donate to a cause they believe in. Then we got a bit of surge and raised a little over $200, where it plateaued, and it looked like it was going to stay that way.
One day while digging through some stuff, I found my grandfather’s straight razor. Picking it up, opening it, turning it around in my hand, it inspired me. Thus, I concocted a nutty idea.
I showed the straight razor to Neil and told him about my nutty idea: We pledge that if we raised $500 I would shave around his moustache and ‘sculpt’ it. If we raised $1000 I would shave all of Neil’s face and neck. I’d do both versions with the straight razor. We’d film it & post it online. We hoped this idea would inspire more people to donate, if for no other reason than to watch me make a mistake. Neil was completely onboard and thought it was a great idea and kind of fun. He’s nutty too.
We fired off more Emails with more requests and declared our pledge. But still our total didn’t budge.
With one week remaining, we didn’t think we’d reach our goal of $500, and resigned ourselves to not doing this shaving idea.
Then on November 30 we got some last minute donations which brought our total to just over $500. We made our goal!
Now we had to make good on our promise. I had to figure out very quickly how to use a straight razor, see if my grandfather’s razor was in decent enough shape, and we had to coordinate a time with a friend around Neil’s busy schedule to film the shaving. Finally we had to take the time to edit the movie and post it to YouTube.
Here is the result… we hope you enjoy it! And please remember to keep the conversation going about men’s health issues!
