Sophomore Nick Dunning has decided to spend this month resembling a popular video game character.
"When I walk out, people are like, ‘You're the guy on Mario! Luigi!'" he said.
Dunning is growing a moustache throughout the month of November along with the rest of the Ball State University men's lacrosse team in supporting "Movember," a cause dedicated to spreading awareness about men's health, specifically testicular and prostate cancer.
Team president John Towle, a junior, introduced the idea to his team after reading a strange Twitter post from a former Ball State student.
"He's saying ‘support my moustache' and I was like, ‘What the heck?' So I clicked the link and that's how I found out about it," Towle said. "It seemed like something fun to do. I sent an e-mail [to the team] and said, ‘Guess what? We're doing this. So anybody who can grow a moustache, start growing it now.'"
All 24 members of the team are now in the process of growing moustaches. At least those who are able to.
"The freshmen can't," joked team treasurer Richie Bray.
Movember was created in 2003 by a group of friends in Australia who claim to have come up with the idea over drinks. According to the official Web site for Movember, they started discussing popular trends from the '80s and decided to bring the moustache back in style. Ultimately, they used their moustaches as a way to raise money for testicular and prostate cancer research.
Every November, the Movember project asks men all over the world to register at their Web site. Starting on Nov. 1, those men who register must be clean-shaven. Throughout the rest of the month, they grow out moustaches. The Movember staff members describe participants as "walking billboards." When a man is asked about his moustache, he uses that as an opportunity to promote men's health. People can make donations for cancer research through those who are registered.
"When you get online, you basically donate to the cause through someone," Towle said. "So you would find Ball State's Men Lacrosse and you would donate through our names. So the money goes straight to [Movember], but they're doing it through us."
The United States became involved in Movember three years ago and the country has already contributed greatly, according to the Web site. In 2008, the U.S. brought in more than $1 million for cancer research. So far this month, the U.S. is in fourth place for money raised.
According to the National Cancer Institute, men are increasingly at risk for developing testicular or prostate cancer. The institute's estimates for 2009 testicular cancer deaths are 380 out of 8,400 cases. The estimates for prostate cancer deaths total 27,360 out of 192,280 new cases. Testicular cancer usually occurs in young or middle-aged men, while prostate cancer is more common for older men.
Bray, a sophomore, said men's health is a taboo subject for young men to discuss. Unlike women's health problems, the subject of cancer is not generally spoken about among men.
"Breast cancer is talked about and talked about comfortably," Bray said. "With guys, they don't talk about it. I'm not going to go up to a guy on the street and say, ‘So, have you checked yourself?'"
The men's lacrosse team's most important goal during Movember is attempting to get men more comfortable with discussing their health. Dunning said talking about a scare he had recently was what helped put him at ease.
"I was a little concerned about it," he said. "After a day I went home [and didn't tell anyone], and the next day, I was like, ‘Something's really different here.' I checked it out and talked to my mom about it, because she's a nurse, and she said I was all right."
Now that it is the middle of the month, the lacrosse team said some of the moustaches have started to look "ridiculous." The general consensus is that Bray has the strangest looking facial hair. He has been told he resembles somebody on the motorcycle reality series "American Chopper."
Towle said when it comes to the moustaches — the crazier, the better.
"It's essentially like a pink ribbon for men," he said. "It's a good conversation-starter. I mean, personally, the only people I know with moustaches are cops."
The lacrosse team wants to set an example for the rest of the male population at Ball State, specifically sports teams who are able to set examples for the rest of the school.
"Hopefully we can get almost every male team to kind of do something like this," Towle said. "It would be something kind of fun. It would be a big statement to see a bunch of guys walking around campus with moustaches. It might freak out some of the girls, I think, but it would get the point across."
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