Last Day of Movember

Welcome to the last day of Movember!

For those Brothers, friends and significant others who have been participating in Movember for the past 30 days, we thank you for your involvement. Phi Kappa Theta's National Movember Team of 24 participants have raised nearly $565 dollars. We look forward to seeing how other Phi Kappa Theta teams have been fairing over the past month.

We want to remind you that while we have spent the last thirty days raising awareness of men's health and specifically prostate and testicular cancer, it is important to remember that we should constantly work to raise our own awareness of health related issues. There are a number of resources that may be found related to men's health topics. Many of them may be found on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's website. There is a great link on the CDC's website related to men's health 'Topics A-Z'.

We hope that you all have had a great experience participating in Movember 2009. We look forward to continuing our involvement and increasing our impact on Movember 2010.

Thanksgiving and Movember

Greetings Readers,

This week is Thanksgiving Holiday. I hope that well all have the opportunity to spend the holiday with friends and family. I know that my own family will be making the ten hour drive from Candor, NY to Indianapolis, IN to spend Thanksgiving with me. I am very excited to share the holiday with them.

I am also a little excited for them to see the progress I have made in growing my Mo'. My parents have never seen me with any substantial amount of facial hair, so this will be interesting. It will of course, be the perfect opportunity to speak to my father about his own health. He is in his early 60's and I want to make sure he is thinking about his long term well being. The holiday weekend will provide the perfect opportunity for all of us to speak with our fathers, uncles, brothers and grandfathers regarding their health. Be sure you are able to speak to them about what has motivated you to participate in Movember.

Here is a brief chart that helps us understand what men should be reviewing with regards to their health through their life.

Have a great safe Thanksgiving and be sure to post your Movember pictures to the facebook event!

Temple Colony Chapter Gets Creative for Movember!

I trust that all of you Movember participants are having a great week four! I know personally I am starting to get into that awkward phase of wearing my 'badge' for Movember and have caught people giving me awkward looks. I am clearly not supposed to have a mustache! Regardless, it has providing me several opportunities to share how I am helping to change the face of men's health. I have spoken with approximately a dozen people in the last week talking about Movember as well as both the Prostate and Livestrong Foundations. It personally has been a very rewarding experience.

As I continue to serve in my role as a professional, it is important for me to learning quickly about news stories that are happening around the country relating to Phi Kappa Theta. Using alerts, I am emailed any news story, article, blog, or note that can be accessed related to Phi Kappa Theta. Admittedly, many of these stories are negative so I always have a bit of anxiety when I get an alert in my inbox. However, yesterday I received a great story related to our Pennsylvania Iota Colony Chapter at Temple University regarding their involvement with Movember. To read the full article, follow the link.

I want to recognize all of you who are participating or contributing to Movember for your hard work! Remember to share news, events and even your pictures relating to Movember so we can continue to share them with the rest of our readership.

Yours in Service,

Robert Riggs

Movember's Impact

Readers and Movember participants,

I would like to share with you a video from Movember's website that goes into more detail about how much of an impact Movember is having with the research that is going on with Prostate Cancer. The information they discuss really brings awareness to how many men Prostate Cancer actually affects.



Please continue to raise awareness of men's health issues throughout your campuses, communities and families!

Movember Day 6!

Greetings Readers!

So as we are officially begin the sixth day of Movember, I thought it might be a good opportunity to share some ideas on events and projects that Movember participants might look to hold this month. We have a number of chapters as well as individual members who have committed to helping us 'Change the Face of Men's Health'. There are really two types of events/projects that would be relevant for the month of Movember educational events and fundraising events.



Educational opportunities would help us raise the awareness levels of the importants of men's health issues. Those might include simple acts such as:

• Distributing information about men's health throughout campus


• Coordinate a phone-a-thon with collegiate members and have them call their brothers, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers and talking to them about their health, the last time they had a physical, the last time they spoke with their doctor about their risk to cancers, etc (written scripts recommended), invite a sorority to participate and call their brothers, fathers, etc


• Coordinate a phone-a-thon to the alumni of the chapter speaking to them about men's health issues (written scripts recommended), invite a sorority to participate and call their brothers, fathers, etc


• Coordniate a panel of medical professionals to come in to speak to the chapter, fraternity and sororoity community, or even open it up to the entire campus


• Have all of your collegiate members get their annual physical exams in the month of Movember


• Attend the end of Movember Gala Party


• There are a number of opportunities to get involved with the Livestrong Foundation direclty off their webiste including becoming a Livestrong Leader. See all the opportunities to Get Involved with the Livestrong Foundation.

Funds raised throughout the month of Movember given to the Movember Foundation who then distributes them between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Livestrong Foundation. Fundraising opportunities might also include:

• Hosting a Mo Party


• Hold shave auctions for those participating by growing a mustache


• Solicit you friends and family members for donations to your Movember teams

These are just a few ways that we can all become part of the movement that is helping us 'change the face' of men's health. We would love to hear and see more ideas and opportunities that our members are creating to become involved with Movember.

Phi Kappa Theta supports Movember

Earlier this summer we were contacted by a representative from Movember asking us if we were interested in supporting their organization. As you can imagine, we are solicited by dozens of companies and organizations every year so at the time I didn't think much about the email.

Several days later, I decided to check out their website to learn a little more about the organization. My initial reaction was of concern, the images of men sporting ridiculous mustaches dressed up in 70's style clothing wasn't an image that Phi Kappa Theta is looking to portray. As a social fraternity, we are constantly fighting the negative stereotypes; Movember's events seemed to only feed into those stereotypes.

What did catch my eye on the home page was Movember's Tagline; "Changing the Face of Men's Health." After speaking further with Movember's, Katie Theile I learned that the purpose of growing a mustache for an entire month was so that it could serve as the ice breaker for conversations about men's health issues to happen. Admittedly we as men, we barely ever talk about issues related to our health. Movember provides the opportunity for men to become engaged early and raise the awareness of men's health issues.

As members of Phi Kappa Theta, we are committed to serving society. Throughout the months of October and (Mo)vember, we will be writing blogs about men's health issues and will be encouraging our memebers to participate in Movember's efforts. In addition, member of our professional staff will also be growing mustaches for the month of (Mo)vember to raise awareness.

We hope that you will join us and our Movember team as we work to Change the Face of Men's Health.