A movement to recognize men’s health issues may be declining, but one Okotoks teacher has a stiff upper lip to keep the message alive. Virgil Green, welding teacher at Foothills Composite High School, has joined the Movember movement, shaving all of his facial hair at the end of October to grow out a moustache through the month of November. He’s raising money for men’s health issues, and it’s gone beyond prostate cancer. In recent years, Movember has come to include mental health issues as well, which hits home a little more for the high school teacher. “I teach 95 per cent boys and most of them are not going to see prostate cancer within the next few years, but a great many of them will suffer from mental health issues,” said Green. He’s been touched by his fair share of tragedy from past students who have lost their lives to what Green terms “addiction suicides.” Some of his past students will put anything in their bodies to try to escape some kind of pain, depression or anxiety, he said. Often that turns into addiction and leads to fentanyl overdoses. “I’ve buried far too many kids in the last year, in the last several years,” said Green. “The opioid crisis is real in my world. I see it in my students, and it’s very easy I guess to not see it if you’re not working with the right crowd of people.” The Movember movement has dropped off in the last few years after being a huge fad just five years ago, when it seemed everyone was growing out a moustache, he said. But in Green’s world, the reality of what young men are going through hasn’t changed. In the last year alone he buried two past students, and their deaths had a profound impact on him. Green is dedicating his Movember 2018 campaign to them. “It’s heart-wrenching,” said Green. “I knew these kids. They’re good kids who make stupid decisions and it’s just painful. “My job keeps me incredible young, but the funerals seem to sort of back that off really quickly.” He approached Movember from an educational standpoint, taking the opportunity to start conversations with his current students, he said. Sometimes it’s about breaking down the stigma around depression and anxiety and other mental health issues, he said. “Movember becomes a bigger concept for me here in the shop,” said Green. “It’s all really positive. If nothing else, just the conversation that starts up and the talk that happens.” Green has some support from his fellow male teachers this year. He’s being joined by Kevin Jones, Greg Poile, Chris Ginakos and soon-to-be-retired Corey Tagg. It’s Tagg’s retirement that inspired Green’s Movember goal. He wants to raise $4,100, which would be $100 for each year Tagg has been teaching. As of Nov. 18, his Movember page had raised $2,020 toward the goal, and Green said it’s coming in differently than the $3,400 he raised in 2017. “Last year I got a lot of big donations, this year there’s a lot of $20 or $30 donations too, and I really appreciate that,” he said. “I have a $300 donation and those big ones are wonderful and nice, but the multitude of little ones sort of shows a different sort of understanding out there and a wider reach.” To donate to Green’s Movember campaign visit www.mobro.co/441480.
