Rugby club shaves for charity

Members of the Seoul Survivors Rugby Football Club and friends pose before the Movember shave-off at Sin Bin Sports Pub in Itaewon, Seoul, Sunday. / Courtesy of John Redmond

• Published Dec 1, 2015 5:48 PM KST
• Updated Dec 1, 2015 5:48 PM KST

By John Redmond

Members and friends of the Seoul Survivors Rugby Football Club raised over 27.6 million won for local charities in a “Movember” shave-off at Sin Bin Sports Pub in Itaewon, Seoul, Sunday.

Movember, a portmanteau from mustache and November, is an annual month-long event where men grow mustaches that are auctioned and shaved, with the funds raised going to charities. The concept originated in Adelaide, south Australia, in 1999.

Originally Movember was to raise awareness for men’s health, however Seoul Survivors has used the campaign to raise funds for charities such as the Eastern Social Welfare Society and Seondeokwon Girl’s Orphanage since 2007 with 29 mustaches being judged this year.

The Korea Times spoke with Seoul Survivors team member Joshua Haney about the origins of the event and the charities targeted.

Q: Who first came up with the idea?

A:

The idea originated with Bernie Mullin and Dwight Johnson at 3 Alley Pub. They held an event at the pub and asked the Survivors to be involved. Since then it has expanded and has become mainly a Survivors event.

Q: What are the judging criteria, and how is money raised?

The main event is a shaving auction. Each Survivor is brought up to be bid on by potential shavers in the crowd. Some people will bid for the participants to keep the mustache for a specified period of time or they may request for other things to be shaved. The awards are simply judged upon by the team and is just a fun aspect of the night.

The money raised for the night was 27.6 million won comprised of 4 million won in donations, 5.969 million won from the mustache auction with an SAB Miller sponsor donation of 5 million won and 12.6 million won from Carl Jacobsohn of Macquarie Bank.

Other sponsors included Savills, Sin Bin Sports Pub, Wilson Parking and Grand Hyatt.

John Redmond is a freelance writer.