When Bray Park State School teacher Wendy Neumann heard about Life Education Queensland’s new fundraising challenge, the Healthy Harold Hundred, she knew she had to sign up and get others involved.
Within a week, the Prep-Year 1 teacher had recruited 13 teachers and teacher aides, and their team, ‘Bring it on’ have been pushing their limits for the inaugural challenge to stamp out bullying.
Wendy and her colleagues have pledged to complete a total of 300 kilometres during the 20-day event and the anti-bullying cause has given them plenty of reasons to stay motivated.
Standing up to bullying
“It’s opened up so many conversations within our group,” Wendy says. “We’ve been sharing stories amongst ourselves about our own encounters with bullying in our school years, and some people have had experiences with racism.
“As educators, we already have positive conversations with students about making good choices but participating in the event has reinforced how important it is to model positive behaviour to children to prevent and manage bullying issues if they arise.”
The challenge has also helped the group get fitter, with some going from zero exercise to more than 3ks of walking a day.
“From a Facebook post about Healthy Harold Hundred, this amazing little group has formed. We are sharing messages each day to motivate each other, and it’s helped us so much. I would urge anyone considering doing the event, to sign up or sponsor someone,” Wendy said.
Healthy Harold Hundred – making a difference
Life Education Queensland CEO Michael Fawsitt said the response to the campaign had been amazing with more than 1,600 Queenslanders signing on to take part in the Healthy Harold Hundred, which challenges Queenslanders of all ages to walk, run or ride 100 kilometres from 5 – 24 May.
“It’s terrific to see teachers and other workplaces forming teams to support our event because they are motivated to make a difference,” Mr Fawsitt said.
“Every single supporter is enabling us to continue to work with schools across Queensland to educate and empower our next generation of young people to relate, respect and connect with others in positive way. Giving children these tools is a vital foundation in preventing bullying and violence in the future.”
