Rugby players Tarantula strip naked for mental health

Players of the Tilburg student rugby club Tarantula have exposed themselves for charity. As part of movember, the men have posed for their own nude calendar.

Tarantula players pose for the nude calendar in 2021. Image: Captain Projects

It’s not the first time they have done this, in 2021 they made their first nude calendar. The proceeds for charity were about five thousand euros, then. This time the counter stands at six thousand euros and the sale will continue for a while, says Tarantula chairman Luka Willemsen.

The association hopes to raise as much money as possible for movember and men’s mental health. ‘In October last year, one of our members committed suicide. Something like that should never happen again, that was our approach. That’s why we have created another nude calendar. To make mental health a topic of discussion and to raise a lot of money.’

Brotherhood

The heavy loss came as a blow to the association, which is why the movember action was only picked up after the action month of November. Yet that was precisely the reason to do it anyway and thus get money and attention for the subject. Willemsen: ‘The positive thing about this is that you come together and get support from each other. It created more brotherhood.’

The previous calendar got featured on the national NOS News. This time, the news attention remained mainly local. ‘We mainly wanted to get a lot of publicity for our action through social media.’ This was not without consequences, Willemsen noticed: ‘We have even sold our calendars internationally. We send them to Spain, Brazil, Argentina and even one to Australia.’

Posing for a nude calendar can mean seeing yourself back in all your glory in unexpected places. No problem, says Willemsen, who also posed for the previous calendar, ‘I’ve already come across it in the toilet of a student house. I think it’s fantastic to do this kind of thing. I’m also a member of the rowing club and I want to fully immerse myself in student life.’

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