A group of Castlegar’s firefighters have far exceeded their fundraising goals in the Movember challenge.
The CFD Stachemasters raised almost $14,000 to help change the face of men’s health, specifically in the areas of mental health, suicide prevention, prostrate cancer and testicular cancer.
The mustaches they have been growing all month turned out pretty good too.
The team of 16 had set a goal of $10,000 for 2020 after raising about $7500 in 2019.
The CFD Stachemasters also did amazingly well in the Great Canadian Fire Challenge — a friendly competition between fire departments to see who could raise the most money.
The challenge had 381 participating teams with a total of 4404 members. The Castlegar team managed to come in 12th place, far surpassing many larger teams from much bigger cities. In total, the Fire Challenge raised more than $800,000.
“People seemed to be quite generous this year,” said team captain Nick Pieszak. “We are grateful for all who donated.”
“Movember is really about awareness. It can happen to anybody — your brother, your father, your husband.”
The Stachemaster’s top fundraiser was CFD Chief Sam Lattanzio with $2530 followed by Nick Pieszak at $2240. Three other members — Jesse Plotnikoff, Stuart Ady and Rob Borsato — each raised more than $1200.
Movember is a registered charity. Last year they raised $20.8 million dollars for men’s health research and prevention. In Canada, the organization hopes to reduce the rate of male suicides by 25 per cent and cut the number of men dying of prostrate cancer and testicular cancer in half by 2030.
Donations can still be made for a few more days on the the Stachemaster’s team page.
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betsy.kline@castlegarnews.com
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