Campus Events
ZBT: moustached men for charity
Courtesy of Andrew Bort Josh Bleicher (right) was the leader of ZBT's Movember initiative last fall, which helped raise over $1000 for the Movember Foundation.
“We really wanted to refocus on the good aspects of being a fraternity and not as much on the social because we know it’s been detrimental in the past,” said Andrew Bort, the public relations chair for Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT).
One event, called “Get on the Ball,” will raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network. The other event is “Movember,” in which participating students grow out moustaches for all of November and help raise awareness and money for men’s issues like prostate cancer and depression.
“Get on the Ball” will kick off on Oct. 2 at 8:30 p.m. with a concert in College Hall. There will be a $5 entrance fee to see several a capella groups, including the Pikers and the Stereotypes, and student bands, including the Elefanatics, a rock band made up of ZBT members.
The actual event will involve rolling a giant ball around campus Monday through Wednesday. Brothers will be collecting signatures on the ball. Parents and other sponsors will pledge to pay a certain amount for each signature.
“Get on the Ball” is a national ZBT event, and its beneficiary, the Children’s Miracle Network, gives money to children’s hospitals.
“Since it’s the first year, we have realistic expectations, but we’re hoping to raise awareness,” said Corey Cantor, ZBT’s philanthropy chair.
The event hasn’t happened in the past two years because the chapter was on probation by both the University and the national organization.
The chapter has since regained national recognition and is on modified social probation with the University.
“We’ve done plenty of good things in all past semesters. Our main issue is that it’s not as visible to the community as we’d like it to be, and what tends to get out to the public is just the negatives,” Bort said.
But the Movember philanthropy event will be visible indeed.
According to the Movember Foundation’s U.S. website, “Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month. The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men.”
Money raised for Movember’s campaign goes to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
ZBT will be tabling throughout the month of November to take donations. Last year, ZBT raised more than $1,000 for the Movember Foundation.
The fraternity hopes to get others involved and even have a moustache contest at the end of the month.
“We feel that by having our main events be primarily the charities and philanthropies, that will help the community realize what our goals have been all along,” Bort said.