Each November, the Nicola Wealth offices tend to get a little hairy. Everywhere you turn, moustaches abound–from the classic “Tom Selleck” to the extravagant “Salvador Dali” - as team members fundraise the annual Movember campaign.
Movember began in 2003 in Australia and has become an iconic global event. Every year, men around the world grow facial hair for a month and join with “Mo Sisters” in various events to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues, including mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. For over a decade, Nicola Wealth has been an enthusiastic participant, forming its first team of “Moustacheers” in 2010 and raising over $500,000 over the next 14 years.
For James McCarthy, Wealth Advisor | Client Relationship Manager at Nicola Wealth, Movember been a source of pride and community-building. “As the firm grew, the Movember team has grown as well,” shares James, co-captain of Nicola Wealth’s Moustacheers.“When I started back in 2016, we had 12 or 15 people. Last year, we had close to 40. It's really starting to snowball. We raised $200,000 in the last two years.”
In addition to the growing of facial hair (among those who can), Moustacheer teammates take part in several events to help raise funds—from personal “cold plunge” challenges to hosting poker nights. In 2023, they also hosted Steve Farina, Executive Vice-President of the British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters’ Association, to talk about mental health among first responders and veterans.
James, who joined Nicola Wealth after immigrating from Cork, Ireland in 2016, notes that Nicola Wealth consistently punches above its weight. Last year, Nicola Wealth’s Moustacheers boasted the sixth largest team total in the country in 2023, at $110,844, and the ninth largest in the entire world—surpassing the fundraising efforts of other teams with 100 people or more.
Opening up the conversation
Last year, one of the standout fundraisers was Lucy So, a Movember rookie who ended up leading the pack with a personal fundraising total of over $7,000. Lucy, Vice President, Institutional | Client Relationship Manager at Nicola Wealth, shares that she was personally moved to join in supporting the cause.
“My involvement was triggered by a personal connection to the causes and the efforts that Movember is trying to support,” she shares, adding that she was particularly keen on shedding light on mental health and suicide prevention and realizing there were others in the organization that felt the same way.
The Movember campaign, she says, has helped facilitate conversation and open up new lines of communication. “It had people talking about these issues, and that is such a positive step forward,” she observes. “I learned about other people's involvement with Movember and why they are involved—whether it be a father or a brother that had prostate cancer or if they had been impacted by suicide in their close circle. Awareness and the ability to talk about these things openly is so important.”
For James, taking part in the Movember campaign has opened up valuable conversations about mental health and men’s health in general. “Growing up in Ireland, Irish society is not the most welcoming to open and honest emotional conversations,” he reflects. “It’s been an eye-opener for me. Over the last number of years, being involved with Movember has allowed me to talk about any mental health struggles or emotional battles, in comparison to what I would have been used to growing up.”
Lucy says her Movember experience last year was a comfort during a difficult time. “A lot of the support from my colleagues is the reason why I was able to raise the most funds across the organization,” she shares. “That kind of turns work from work into a family.”
