Student leaders from Tauranga Boys' College are undertaking a challenge for Movember.
Lying on the beach with the waves crashing over them is not where many people would like to find themselves in the middle of the night.
But that is where six Tauranga Boys’ College prefects and head students will be on September 16 at 12.30am.
Deputy head boy Jake Corney said the group would be doing a 40-hour physical activity challenge - called Fortress 40 - from 4am on September 15 to 8pm on September 16.
Corney and fellow students Kane McBrydie, Bodhi Redwood, Samuel Sutton, Alex White and Reed Tong are doing their own version of Navy Seal Training to raise awareness for mental health.
“If we’re seen struggling ... [we] hope we can change the stigma for boys that it’s okay to struggle, it’s okay to be seen as weak and it’s okay to ask for help,” Corney said.
Tauranga Boys’ College prefects and head students are doing a 40-hour challenge to raise awareness for men’s mental health. L-R: Bodhi Redwood, Kane McBrydie, Alex White, Jake Corney, Samuel Sutton. Photo / Alex Cairns
Corney said as leaders of an all-boys school, mental health was “quite a significant issue”.
“Most of us are high-achieving and it gets really stressful when you’re trying to play sports and get all your academic [grades] and sometimes it can just get too overwhelming.”
The group will do 39 hours of physical activity - gym sessions, swimming, running, waka ama, biking - and sleep for one hour, he said.
Tauranga Boys’ College deputy head boy Jake Corney. Photo / Alex Cairns
Corney explained the Navy Seal aspect of the challenge was “surf torture”.
“We’re pretty much going to be lying in the water with the waves crashing over us for [45] minutes ... when it’s all dark, when no one is there to support us. Just to really exemplify the point that we’re struggling and that struggling is okay.”
The group will do five “surf torture” sessions throughout the 40-hour period at Mount Maunganui Main Beach wearing sports gear.
On the 40-hour challenge, Corney admitted: “We don’t know if it is possible to complete”.
However, “we’re all really excited to push past our limits and see what we’re capable of”.
Corney said at least two physical education teachers would be with them at all times. St John staff, lifeguards and physiotherapists would also supervise the group.
Corney said the group had partnered with Movember - a charity for men’s mental health - where people could donate.
“However, the main purpose of this is to raise awareness. Fundraising is a great thing to do and it can help create men’s mental health resources and support people who are going through a tough time but we’re just trying to raise awareness to reach as many people as possible to say it’s okay to struggle.
“We’re not really asking for donations - just check up on your mates ... your fathers, your sons, your friends and uncles and ask if they’re okay, if they’re really okay.”
Tauranga Boys’ College head boy Kane McBrydie. Photo / Alex Cairns
Tauranga Boys’ College head boy Kane McBrydie said the group wanted to change the stigma of mental health embedded in Kiwi culture.
“As cliche as it sounds, we are sort of brothers with everyone at this school, and we do care for them ... so we want the best for them.”
Tauranga Boys’ College principal Andrew Turner said the challenge for student leaders each year was to leave “a little bit of a legacy”.
“This is part of that ... it’s doing something a little bit different.”
He said there was a lot of “top-down” information about men’s mental health.
“It’s really encouraging when you see it coming from the bottom up. Now you’re seeing young men ... off their own back are responding to that and saying, ‘Well actually how about we put ourselves in a scenario, physically, emotionally and mentally where we put ourselves in a mental headspace that simulates some of the challenges that men deal with every day’.”
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