Joeys community to grow and move for Movember

ST Josephs College (SJC) Geelong is unofficially changing its name to ‘St Moseph’s College’ this November as students and staff strive to raise $10,000 for Movember.

Movember is a month-long campaign that encourages participants to raise money for mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer and since 2003 has funded more than 1,250 men’s health projects around the world.

St Joseph’s College, Geelong, has participated in the campaign for almost a decade, and since 2014 has been led by team captain and teacher Tom Cashin.

Since becoming involved personally ten years ago, Mr Cashin has raised $31,690 for Movember and said it is an appeal that is close to his heart.

“I lost two mates to suicide, one in 2009 and then lost another one in 2013,” Cashin said.

“My motivation is to change the negative stigma held on those and in particular men who speak up when they’re down mentally, physically, emotionally and socially.

“If I can help provide that energy, education and encouragement to promote those social connections for my students at school and beyond, then those statistics will slowly change.

“Since I’ve been at Joeys, I have seen a huge change with the boys, community and past students wanting to be more involved.”

Cashin said school’s goal was to raise $10,000, but he also hopes that the greater SJC Geelong community will get involved by moving for Movember.

“It’s not always about making money, it’s about creating those friendship groups and those connections that you can reach out to who can provide that help when needed,” Cashin said.

“We hope to get 1000km of moving in Movember, our SJC community are not just men, we have female teachers, we have mums, we have sisters and by moving throughout the month, it’s a way that they can be involved,” Cashin said.

“It’s also a way for those men who don’t want to grow mo’s to be apart of it.”

Cashin said as the only all boys school in the region, he feels compelled to continue to bring men’s health into the limelight.

“Considering we are the only all boys school in Geelong, I thought men’s health was something that needed to be spoken about more.

“Probably when I started eight years ago, there was still that stigma about speaking up and the stereotype around what it is to be a man.

“It’s been great to see the buy in from the students and community to do what we can to spark change.”

Cashin invites students, teachers, mothers, sisters, friends and Old Collegians to get involved in the hope of looking after each other and building a safer and more open society.