Mike Lebhar, a junior biomedical engineering major, and Brian Riefler, a junior chemistry major, are including more people in the popular Movember movement, started at UNC in 2012, where men forgo shaving throughout November to raise awareness about men’s health issues. This year, Carolina Movember is working with the Greek system and campus organizations to increase participation in Movember.
The Daily Tar Heel: What is the UNC Movember Club about?
Brian Riefler: ...There was pretty strong support at the graduate level at UNC, but there really wasn’t a lot of undergraduate support at UNC, which is what Mike and I are really trying to do because I think they are really issues that either directly or indirectly impact us as students. I started the Movember Club last spring semester with my buddy, Nick. Last fall was like a test run ... We were kind of in the growing pains. Now we are getting a lot of support from fraternities and sororities, and UNC Athletics is on board. Hopefully, we’ll see a few student athletes growing out their mustaches.
Mike Lebhar: ...I thought fraternities, first of all, are a huge organization of about 1,500 males that are directly affected by what Movember is trying to raise money for and help later on in life. I thought why not try and do a total fraternity-wide event and try to get everyone included. Then I thought sororities benefit from this as well because every girl has a male figure in their life that they love and would not want to be sick, just as we wouldn’t want our mothers to be sick with breast cancer.
DTH: How are you appealing to women?
BR: ...I think arguably they’re just as important as what men are doing. There’s basically two groups of people who participate in Movember. Mike and I would be the “MoBros.” We grow out our mustaches. The mustache is a very visible sign … of the invisible issues that men face. Women are called the “MoSisters.” ...They do everything that we do except for growing out their mustaches.
ML: Testicular cancer and prostate cancer are just as prevalent as breast cancer or lung cancer in terms of the amount of times it is diagnosed in the U.S. alone. With prostate cancer and testicular cancer, the survival rate is about 100 percent if you detect it early versus breast cancer and lung cancer where you deal with you deal with complications... If we can fight this, just as we can fight breast cancer, it would be a great fundraiser.
DTH: What are your goals or important things you want to accomplish?
BR: We talk a lot about fundraising, and we fundraised $43,000 last year. Realistically, we could push to $50,000 this year if we get support from all across campus. Really beyond the fundraising, the campaign at the center of it is the awareness and the conversation these mustaches generate.
