First- and second-year medical and dental students at UAlberta combined to raise over $27,000 for Movember. The second-years alone raised over $20,000. To honour their achievement, Douglas Miller, dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and his colleagues helped to shave off the students' moustaches Nov. 30.
(Edmonton) Alberta's future physicians and dentists are already taking their health-care role very seriously-with a fun twist.
Fifty students in the second-year class at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry are sporting moustaches, like many men across the city, in support of Movember. What makes them stand out is that they've raised more than $20,000 as a team for the fundraising campaign, which supports prostate cancer research and awareness, and new this year, men's mental health.
That number puts them in the lead for the top campus fundraising team in Canada.
"It's gone completely beyond what I even imagined at the beginning of the month," said Vikram Karnik, a second-year medical student who organized his class's team. "I'm so happy we can raise this much money for prostate cancer and men's mental health. Being future health-care professionals, we wanted to do something that was both fun and for a good cause."
Last year the group raised $7,900. Karnik attributes this year's success to persistence, with people going after sources they wouldn't have last year. They're also getting help from the "Mo sisters" in their class who organized a fundraising bar night and a bake sale, designed and made T-shirts, and crocheted coffee sleeves.
The dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Douglas Miller, couldn't be more impressed with the students' efforts.
"This is something we as a faculty should be very proud of," said Miller. "This speaks volumes about the character of the students going through our medical and dental programs."