Rebecca Schmidt

“I might just put Miracle Grow on it,” Mr. Thomas Keller said, referring to his mustache he is growing for the annual competition between the teachers, nationally known as Movember. “I’m going to go as goofy as I can, and, when it gets longer, I’ll get some fancy gel products later in the competition.”

Movember is a month-long charity drive created in 2003 to raise money to support cancer research such as the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong. Men must begin on November 1 by having a clean shaven-face; then for the entire month each “mo bro” must grow and groom a mustache. Their mustaches cannot join to their sideburns, because that is considered a beard, according to the Movember official website.

The purpose of Movember is for the participants to collect money from sponsors and the profits go directly to cancer research. The Harbinger will make a donation in honor of the teacher who earns the most votes on the Harbinger website: www.herefordharbinger.wordpress.com. The teachers competing this year are Mr. Weston Fellows, Mr. Jonathan Arend, Mr. Peter Imhoff, Mr. Charles Fluharty, Mr. Christopher Davis, Mr. Jon Shinnick, and Mr. Thomas Keller.

Each contestant said he has a special game-plan to win the most votes. Last year’s champion, Mr. Davis, said, “I look forward to the challenge and to the staff bringing their A-game for this year.” He also said, sarcastically, “I comb it 500 times every night, but I will be bringing back some things from last year like the mustache wax when we get closer to the last day in voting. I don’t want to ruin the surprise quite yet.”

Mr. Fellows said it’s not all about winning the competition, but it’s about raising awareness to support men’s health.The cancers that most frequently affect men are prostate, colon, and lung cancer. The chance for men of getting prostate cancer increases as they get older and is usually found in men over the age of 65. For colon cancer, eating a diet mostly of high-fat foods (especially from animal sources), being overweight, smoking, and being inactive can increase the chances to have colon cancer. Lung cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented; smoking is the cause of about 80% of all lung cancer.

There are some downsides of growing the mustache. For people who aren’t used to one, food usually gets stuck in it after every meal. He said, “Ice cream and soup or anything that is up on my upper lip is what mostly gets stuck up there.”

“Mr. Fellows’s mustache looks pretty legit,” said Shannon Martello (12). Last year, he grew a regular handlebar mustache, and this year he plans on growing an extended Fu Manchu.

Mr. Imhoff confessed that he is “going for the Brad Pitt look,” hoping that will gain him votes. Sophie Seaman (10) said, “Last year when I met Mr. Imhoff during November, he had a weird mustache that connected to his sideburns and this year he informed us that it was not legal in the official rules of Movember. So, this year, he told us he was going with a more subtle approach.”

The two other competitors Mr. Arend and Mr. Fluharty are also going for uncommon mustache styles, having secret weapons they will expose towards the end of the competition.

Peyton Butt (10) said, “It’s hard to take Mr. Fluharty and all of the other teachers seriously with their mustaches.”