If you were to walk the halls of Kinaxis headquarters in Ottawa these days, you’d notice something a bit different. It might take you a few moments, but it’s there. There seems to be a lot of guys sporting hair on their upper lip. No, we’re not living in the 70’s (we leave that to the ERP vendors). No, it’s not a weird Canadian approach to dealing with the cold. Nope, it’s Movember!

Movember is a movement that was started in Australia with a group of friends – you can watch a TED talk with one of the founders here.

The idea behind Movmeber is best described on the Movember website, but here’s a good quote:

“Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in Canada and around the world. With their “Mo’s”, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and male mental health initiatives.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine mustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words, they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.”

Since its inception in 2003, Movember has raised $301 Million CAD and has driven many men (myself included) to take their health more seriously.

This is the second year that Kinaxis has had a Movember team. In our first year, we were able to raise over $2000 and had a lot of fun with various events throughout the month, not to mention growing some really cool ‘staches.

This year promises to be even better. We’ve already had a couple of events and we are well on our way to exceeding last year’s donations. My personal favorite event was the bagel breakfast kick-off, which included the “Shave the Scott” event, where some lucky person got to shave the famous beard from our documentation writer, Scott. And no, we didn’t really use the straight razor.

Movember has been a lot of fun so far, but we shouldn’t forget the underlying reason for Movember.  According to the Movember page, men die 5 – 6 years younger than women, have 4 times higher suicide rates. Further, more than 5 men die prematurely each hour from potentially preventable illnesses. Movember is about changing these stats, one mustache at a time.  If you are interested in helping raise money for men’s health awareness and research, feel free to donate to team Kinaxis!

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