24 November 2025
Midnight cheese toasties and country music singalongs in the early morning hours will spur on a team of Harrisdale Primary School staff members as they tackle an endurance challenge in support of men’s health.
Known as the Harrisdale Handlebars, the team will take turns walking the school oval and riding stationary bikes non-stop for 24 hours later this month to raise funds for the Movember Foundation.
The Harrisdale Handlebars are back for another year of fundraising for Movember.
More than 40 Harrisdale staff are expected to participate in the challenge, which kicks off at 2:30 pm on Thursday 27 November. Students will also complete a one-hour lapathon in support of the cause.
The school’s annual Movember event began in 2018 when a handful of staff cultivated moustaches in November, giving rise to the ‘Harrisdale Handlebars’ moniker.
It has since developed into an event the entire school community is involved in and Luke Walton, Year 4 teacher and Handlebars captain, is hoping to achieve a record-breaking fundraising haul this year.
“Every year the students challenge themselves to move further and raise more as they gain a greater understanding of the Movember Foundation,” he said.
“Over the past four years, Harrisdale Primary School has been the highest fundraising primary and public school in Australia.
Students are also taking part with their lapathon.
“Last year we raised $16,600 and this year we hope to surpass the $20,000 mark.”
Several staff members are also participating in the month-long ‘Move for Movember’ challenge. It consists of a pledge to walk 60 km in November, representing the 60 men lost to suicide each hour, every hour across the world.
It’s a sobering statistic but Mr Walton believes Harrisdale Primary’s Movember event has helped shift attitudes in the school community since its inception.
“For our school, Movember is an important cause to help begin and continue the conversation for our students and families that it’s OK not being OK, but what is not OK is doing nothing about it,” he said.
“A lot of people, males in particular, try to soldier on and we want our school community to understand that we can have those hard conversations instead.
“We have also had family members of staff affected by some of the cancers that the Movember Foundation is working so hard to prevent.”
Mr Walton says lessons from Movember extend into the classrooms at Harrisdale Primary School.
“Earlier this year our phys ed teachers taught the students the phrase ‘I can do hard things’ leading into our school cross country,” he said.
“This has become a rallying cry for our students in all situations, building that resiliency and understanding that just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.
“Our students see it first-hand when their teachers, allied professionals and admin staff are on a bike or walking the oval during our 24-hour challenge.
“We as educators lead by example and we surely do walk the walk.
“At the end of the day, we all have a father, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, friend or co-worker that is male and the Movember Foundation is working to help with issues that are preventable with support.”