‘Movember’: a growing trend at Plaza

Things are getting hairy at Plaza Elementary. No, it’s not finals or report card day. It’s just that a 20-member team, including every male staffer, decided to grow mustaches during the month of November. The newly mustachioed Plaza men call themselves Team Plazstashio, and they had raised $1,235 to fight cancer just days shy of the month’s end.

The “Movember” movement — know in some quarters as “Growvember” — is a men’s health fundraising initiative that began in Australia in 2003. Since then the idea has, um, grown on men across the globe, and the campaign has raised a total of nearly $180 million.

The idea is simple. To participate, Team Plazstashio registered at www.movember.com, and then sought sponsors for their lip-ticklers, handlebars, Fu Manchus, soup strainers, misplaced eyebrows and other styles of facial hair. The team then forked over their earnings to support the fight against prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. Above, the newly hirsute men of Plaza.