By Patrick Puff
Photo by Patrick Puff
Whether they’re on the ice, on the court or across the NAIT campus, moustaches are back and for a great cause. Like many professional athletes across the country, NAIT has a few athletes and staff across campus looking to make a difference.
November, also known as ‘Movember’ is a month long event where men across the country are growing their moustaches to raise awareness of men’s health.
Sam Nahrgang is the Sports Information and Sponsorship Coordinator at NAIT. He started fundraising at NAIT in 2012 and has since encouraged other staff and student athletes to get involved in this campaign.
Nahrgang was personally affected when he lost a member of his family to prostate cancer.
“I think the cause is pretty important. When it first started, I thought it was such a unique way to raise money and it was very easy for people to get involved,” he said.
The NAIT Athletics team is made up of both staff and students. Currently there are 19 athletic students involved in the campaign this year. The team was able to raise $3,874 last year and are hoping they will be able to raise $5,000 this year.
A simple search for ‘NAIT Athletics’ on the Movember website will take you to their donations page where they have already raised over $2,000 dollars in 2019.
Nahrgang is also happy to see the Movember movement carry on outside of the athletics department.
“When you walk around, it’s nice to see everyone with moustaches. It has become a symbol. If you come out to the games, you’ll see some moustaches, but at the same time all the fun goes back to a good cause,” he said.
Over 18 million dollars was raised just last year by “Mo Bros and Mo Sistas.” This number has seen a steady increase from year to year and is likely to keep ‘growing’ since the campaign began in 2003 and has grown from 30 moustache growers to over five million.
