West Orange Raises Over $11K for Movember Campaign

West Orange residents, businesses and administrators all helped the community raise over $11,000 for Movember, the national campaign that raises awareness for men's health.

Movember is a campaign where men grow moustaches for the entire month of November to raise awareness for men's health. West Orange was the first town in the world to make it a collaborative, community effort.

Everyone gathered at the Pour House Pub & Grub on Dec. 1 in celebration of the success of Team Mo Wo, the township's team, and it was a great success, according to Perry Bashkoff, Director of Social Media for the township and organizer of the town-wide initiative that took place last month.

"I think it was great," Bashkoff said of the event in a phone interview with Patch. "There was a great turn out and a bunch of folks from all different aspects of campaign attended."

Bashkoff stated that many residents turned out to show their support, including his son's soccer team and the dads, the West Orange High School boys soccer coach, Mayor Robert Parisi and others.

Parisi stated through email correspondence with the Patch that he believed the campaign was a success as well.

“Movember not only helped make an impact on the face of men’s health, it showed how our community can come together as a team to make a difference, though I admit I was happy to shave my moustache," Parisi said.

The Pour House Pub & Grub also donated 20-percent of all the orders at the event and donated it to Movember, according to Bashkoff.

Bashkoff stated that the money raised for Movember was a combination of individual and business efforts.

"The way Movember set us up is that we had our team, Team Mo Wo, and that team raised just over $10,000 through personal donations, business donations and others and all that stuff went directly to the Movember campaign," Bashkoff said. "If there are multiple teams in a territory then they let you create a network and 8 to 8 Barbershop had their own team so we added that team to our West Orange network and it ended up being $11,000." 

"It was a very successful inaugural year for Movember in West Orange," Bashkoff said.