If you’ve been talking to someone on campus and had an unexplainable urge to stare at his upper lip, well, you may not be crazy. There definitely HAS been an increase in facial hair at Elmira College. I’ll explain.
For the entire month of January, the Men’s Hockey team and other participating students are growing moustaches. This event is commonly known as “Manuary”. Similar months include Moustache March, Movember, Stachtember, The Stanley Cup Playoffs (for hockey fans), and Handlebar Hapril (okay, I made that one up). Each of these events has the same premise: no shaving of the agreed-upon portions of facial hair during that month.
The motivation behind most of these occasions is not entirely understood. Why, specifically, does one grow a moustache in the month of March? Not sure, but I imagine you could find these months labeled under the “just for fun” category of facebook groups.
Although Manuary may seem to be one of the more pointless occasions of the calendar year, at Elmira College, it does have a purpose. The purpose is to raise awareness for prostate cancer. Almost everybody has been, or knows someone who has been affected by prostate cancer. It is the most common non-skin cancer in America, affecting close to 1 in 6 men. For that reason, it will be Prostate Cancer Night at the Murray Athletic Centre on January 29, where the EC Men’s Varsity Hockey team will play host to the Utica Pioneers. Soaring Eagles play host the Utica Pioneers. The puck drops at 7:00pm. Tables where you can make donations will be set up around the arena.
As far a raising awareness goes, growing moustaches works pretty well – that is, if you can grow a reasonable one. The idea is that everyone will ask why you are growing a moustache, then you can tell them about the cause. However, for someone who is not as proficient at growing moustaches, like myself, a certain amount of time was wasted. I went through about 2 and a half weeks of the ‘awkward stage’, where the hair on my upper lip more resembled peach fuzz or food particles than it did a moustache. (Someone handed me a napkin without saying anything once. I couldn’t figure out why, until recently…). At that stage, people seemed to be too embarrassed for me to say anything or ask me about it. I finally had to resort to dying my moustache to make it clear that, yes, I do have a razor, and, yes, I am intentionally not shaving my moustache.
Despite the ‘awkward stage’ and all the weird looks, I still think Prostate Manuary has been a good idea. All I ask is that everyone attend and make a donation on the 29th so that my awkward moustache was not grown in vain.
P.S. I caught Hank, may he rest in peace.
