By Josh Beneteau
Members of the Ryerson men’s volleyball team have been forgoing the razor for a cause long before it was popular. Back in 2009, head coach Mirek Porosa, who lost his grandfather to prostate cancer, heard about the no-shave movement that was gaining ground across Canada. So he pitched the idea to assistant coach Roger Marszalek, who then got the whole team on board.
“[Roger and I] talked about it, and he just took charge of it,” Porosa says. “He talked to the teammates and that’s how we started raising money.”
Since then, members of the team have shaved every Nov. 1 before growing their moustaches to raise money, while taking before and after photos to document their progress. To date, the team has raised more than $3,000 for prostate cancer research – with almost half of that coming last year, when the team posed for a nude calendar to raise funds.
“We simply went around asking our friends and families for donations,” Marszalek says. “To motivate our players, we have a competition to see who can raise the most money.”
This is team captain Robby Earl’s fourth year participating in Movember. The historically weak moustache-grower hopes to post an improvement over previous years – not only in terms of hair growth, but donations.
“Every year we try to double our totals,” Earl says. “But as a team, everyone has their own goals to raise as much [money] as they can.”
The men’s hockey team has also gotten involved. Defenceman Mark Corbett, who lost an aunt to cancer, is hosting a charity event at Grace O’Malley’s Pub on Nov. 27. Last year, his event raised almost $1,000.
“We’ve all dealt with a friend or family member having cancer,” Corbett says. “So it’s important to everybody to help as much as they can.”
Those interested in donating to varsity athletes participating in Movember can look for the Ryerson Rams Athletics team at ca.movember.
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