Movember 2013

Hi All,

That wonderful time of the year when Movember returns and peace is restored across the galaxy....

Due to popular demand I have decided to alter the Mo design slightly as we move towards gaining more sponsors, a few designs came into mind but two stood out for me.

The Mini Mo, this is where I will grow my normal over the lip but then have a smaller one etched in under my bottom lip without touching the other.

But the one which got the vote this year and makes me think of Star Wars all over is..... The Dual Mo. Every time I think of the name Dual Mo it makes me think of the epic Star Wars battle between Qui Gon, Obi Wan and Darth Maul. The soundtrack to this battle was named "Duel of the Fates".

The Dual Mo is just that, two mo's instead of one, here's an early photo. I've carved one in the normal spot and another underneath my bottom lip.

So far its been received with mix reactions, majority from my work are shocked but hey - I'm not doing this for approval, this is for charity!

This year I've started off a little slow as I was interstate for the first week until now, so all my normal emails pleading for donations went out rather late and subsequently my donations tally isn't looking healthy at the mo.

I'm confident though of it moving towards the $1k mark, I've been participating in Movember now for 8/9 years and in all that time I think I've missed raising $1k only once. So it makes me proud that I've been able to raise approx $7k to this fantastic charity, one which is growing in popularity at a rapid rate. When I first started Movember then was in its infant stages, not many knew of the charity - now its all over the media and expanding all over the world!

Looking on the website the Movember event started with as little as 30 people back in 2003 and has propelled into a massive 1.1 Million participants in 2012. Back then the idea was born but no real funds raised, in its first real fundraising year, 2004, Movember raised a total of $54,000... Compare this to a staggering $141.5 Million in 2012 and you have yourselves a massive event!

So, with those stats now comes my plea. As I mentioned I've raised approx $7k in the history of my Movember, This isn't enough and I aim to push towards $10k and beyond. I do this for the charity only, no personal gain - One month a year of having a Mo which most will laugh at is a small price to pay for this great event.

Please, hop online by clicking this link: http://mobro.co/TonyRogers This is the link to my Mo Space, please check out and donate anything you can - remember everything over $2 is tax deductible and greatly appreciated.

Regards

Bo_Gas

Movember

For those that know me, the month of Movember is one of my favourites in the year (besides AFL finals in September...).

Movember in short, is a month for blokes like me to grow a mo, fundraise and basically look silly for a great cause.

Movember was first founded in Melbourne (Australia) 2003 and with just a couple of mates, word spread of their fundraising efforts and more and more wanted to join. Since then it has over 1.9million Mo Bro's and Mo Sista's... Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, the UK, South Africa, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the Czech Republic all have formal registers online for everyone to join. Its also rumoured that there are people joining and fundraising from Russia to Dubai, Hong Kong to Antarctica, Rio de Janeiro to Mumbai!

Since then a number of celebrities have also joined in support, the odd couple will do it in the US but we have a number of ones joining in Australia which is awesome!

Me, my journey began in 2006 when i heard alot of blokes from work talking about it the year before - some were thinking of doing it so i decided to form a team at work called, Mo Wars - Episode 1 - The Phantom Mo...

The idea was to get us to grow mo's and then dress up as Star Wars characters at the gala event at the end of Movember... Idea was great, for me... pity i'm the only Star Wars fan at my work, so we continued to go with the theme however noone would dress up haha...

Started off strong and we had over 14 participants, some found it hard, both growing a mo as well as fundraising for donations. I had a stellar year through organising Melbourne Cup Sweeps as well as a pre drinks function before the gala party. Sweeps is where we make the donations.. Funny thing about Melbourne Cup, everyone wants the favourites and then the others win.. so people go nuts and buy as many as possible, me i end up spending way too much and never win...

I managed to raise over $1k for that first year which was awesome, since then i've only been able to get over the $1k mark three times however have pushed around the $500,$600 & $800 mark on the other occasions. I haven't kept a good tally however believe i have raised approx $5k since i first joined which i love, can't wait to one day reach $10k & $20k...

Our team continued the themes but last few years many have dropped off, to the point where in 2010 we only had 2 Mo Bro's and 1 Mo Sista... Dark times for our team but we have bolstered the group by extending abroad to our parent company and recruiting members in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania... We now go by a new name "Team IOOF" however parts of me still refers to Mo Wars... Our team roughly raises approx $5k each year so I believe we've raised around $20k in the six years (allowing for very lean years with hardly anyone joined...)

If your reading this I urge you to get involved somehow, be it by joining and growing a mo as a Mo Bro, join as a Mo Sista and help raise funds and awareness or just simply donate what you can to a participant.

The more we get participating and donating the bigger this event becomes, the more funds the receipients receive to help fund the research and support programs in place to help those affected by Prostate Cancer and Male Depression.

Hey at the end of the day for us participants its a great laugh, some of us can grow big hairy monsters whilst some can only grow what we commonly refer too as a "Lame Mo"...

But its all great fun, we all have a laugh and help raise as much as we can.

So in that month of Movember, keep an eye out for the charity, join up wherever you are in the world by jumping on www.movember.com register a team and go from there, they give you all the tools to email your sponsors, connect via facebook or twitter, print out business cards and posters as well as give out some great prizes both locally and globally for the best and worst Mo's, best themed Mo etc...

If you'd like more information about Movember or would like to know the History and more about receipients such as Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and BeyondBlue then head to www.movember.com and go from there

Good luck - and i hope to see you all joined up as a Mo Bro or Mo Sista soon (Or one of our donators...)