Seven-year-old Casper Wilderman has been rocking a ‘stache for nearly an entire month and in the process has raised $565 for Movember, a charity focused on men's mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.
“One day I just decided I wanted to wear a moustache to school, and my dad found this thing on his phone called Movember,” Casper explained in an interview with MooseJawToday.com.
“We started out drawing moustaches, but then we bought a moustache kit.”
On Nov. 21, Casper was wearing a fluffy, white, traditional mustache, very comfortably occupying the entire surface of his upper lip and even finding some space on his cheeks.
However, he revealed that his favourite style is the horseshoe moustache. He has an extensive collection at this point.
“He just decided he wanted to draw moustaches on his face,” laughed Casper’s father Dillon Wilderman. “I thought, hey, maybe we could turn it into something. I described to him what Movember was, and he thought it was a cool idea.”
“So, I asked at the perfect time!” Casper pointed out.
Dillon and Trynda — Casper’s mom — thought it was a great opportunity to show Casper that even small ideas can turn into helping other people. They decided to set an initial goal of $100. When the first donation came in on the Facebook fundraising page, Casper was completely excited.
“We told him that if he kept it up to a certain point, we’d get him a moustache kit,” Dillon said. “Then, you can upgrade from drawing them to these fuzzy ones off Amazon.”
Trynda Wilderman said the moustache kit has really worked out — the only issue being that sometimes Casper’s upper lip is sore by the end of the day. He’s had to remain committed, and has succeeded with determination and encouragement from his family.
“For only being seven, it’s been awesome to watch him be so dedicated with something. Every morning, he wakes up, and sometimes he says, ‘Oh, I’m not sure,’ but he puts it on anyway,” Trynda said. “Every time we get a donation, we involve him with it … and he gets so excited!
“He’s up to $565, and he was so happy last night that we had a little celebration.”
His parents are proud of him for sticking out the whole month, although Casper admitted he is ready to be done with moustaches at the end of November. At least for a little while.
“It’s helping people, even though it’s a silly and fun idea,” Casper said about Movember. “It’s for raising money for men’s health and cancer.”
Casper Wilderman’s Movember donation page can be found on the Canadian Movember page at https://ca.movember.com/mospace/14924274.
The QR code below can be scanned with a smartphone to take you right there.
