FARMINGDALE, NY, December 4, 2009 – Continuously looking for avenues to better our world and communities, D’Addario & Company employees recently participated in MOvember, an annual, month-long celebration of the mustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer.

D’Addario’s participants included Executive VP - John D’Addario III, US Sales Manager - Pat Zerbo, Controller - Jim Silvestri, PWCI Product Manager - Rob D’Addario, Lean Champion - Steve Lee, Video Production/Senior Designer - John Rafferty, along with Sales team members Ari Simon, Josh Sodikoff, Josh Touchton, Jim Boyle, and Michael McAndrew.

Originated in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia, Movember founders joked about 80s fashion, deciding it was time to bring the mustache back. In order to justify their Mos (Australian slang for mustache), they used their new looks to raise money for prostate cancer research, never dreaming that facial hair would ultimately lead to a global movement that would get men talking about a taboo subject – their health.

A Mo Bro starts Movember (the month formerly known as November) clean shaven, and grows a mustache all month long, gathering support from friends and family in the form of donations. A Mo Bro is a walking billboard for the cause as his new look opens the door for him to talk about cancers affecting men – making the mustache a symbol, much like the pink ribbon is for breast cancer. Each Movember culminates in a Gala Partè in major cities around the globe where Mo Bros dress up to match their Mo, channeling the likes of Tom Selleck, Gandhi, and Ron Burgandy, vying for the highest honor: Man of Movember.

While growing a Mo is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (women who support their guys) form an important part of Movember by recruiting Mo Bros and by helping to raise funds.

This Movember, the money raised in the U.S. will be split between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, The Prostate Cancer Foundation to use the money to fund research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer, while The Lance Armstrong Foundation will use the money to fund:

• the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance program which has the goal of improving survival rates and quality of life for young adults with cancer between the ages of 15 and 40.
• research initiatives to further understand the biology of adolescent and young adult cancers.

To date, Movember has raised $47 million globally making it the world’s largest charity event for men. Significantly, awareness of men’s health issues has improved with Movember helping to spread important health messages directly to millions of Mo Bros & Sistas around the world.

For more information on D’Addario & Company, Inc., please visit www.jdaddario.com.
For more information on Movember or to make a donation, please visit http://us.movemberfoundation.com/.

About D'Addario & Company:
D’Addario & Company, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets complete lines of strings for fretted and bowed musical instruments, drumheads, drum practice pads, and guitar and woodwind accessories under the proprietary brand names D’Addario, Evans Drumheads, Planet Waves, Rico, HQ Percussion and PureSound Percussion. The company also runs D’Addario’s Musician Hub, The Stage (www.tothestage.com) and The Lesson Room (www.thelessonroom.com) and Guitar.com. D’Addario products are marketed in approximately 120 countries.