By Jen Gourley
It’s going to be pumping at the Biloela Bowls Club on Saturday night. In fact, it’s going to be MO-mentous!
Bowlo Rocks will not only bring some rockin’ bands to the Bowls Club, it will also bring the community together for a great cause.
It’s November and that means it’s Movember – the month that blokes go in pursuit of being more hirsute (aka growing a moustache!) to raise funds for men’s health.
The Bowlo staff are keen to hold more charity events and they are kicking things off with Bowlo Rocks because mental health is on their minds.
The Bowlo’s Ros Loader said not only would the event held raise funds for Movember, it would also provide the opportunity to start having conversations about men’s mental health.
“It’s close to all our hearts,” Ros said. “I think nearly everyone knows someone that’s been affected in some way or other. I’ve grown up here and I lost a friend to suicide when I was 17 and then it was just repeating in Biloela. We feel like we’ve got a really good, open venue here and this is our opportunity to let conversations happen and let people know that it is okay to have those hard conversations.”
“It’s 2022 – we don’t need to suffer in silence anymore,” added Biloela Bowls Club Manager Bianca Swift. “We wanted to do something to bring the community together during Movember and get talking about mental health.”
So, what can people expect at Bowlo Rocks?
“Lots of loud music,” said Ros, with a grin. “We’re both music fans. I know when I’m having a tough day, like in my own battles, I find nothing better than to turn on some loud music, sing, and dance silly in my kitchen. There’s something about music and mental health that just works together. That’s worked for me throughout my own mental health journey. And so that’s something that we can provide at this event – we can’t provide a counselling service or anything like that, but we can provide that fun, safe, supportive environment with lots of loud music for people just to come together.
“We’ve all been through the pandemic too and out the other side of it. What we’d really like to achieve here is to get the community coming back together because people have been putting themselves away for so long that, for some people, especially if they have mental health problems, it’s really difficult after going through that isolating period and so much fear that it’s hard for them to actually get out of the house – their anxiety, their depression won’t even let them do that.
“So, we just want to open it up that people might come along, go, ‘Oh, okay, this sounds like fun’, and it might get the community connecting again, in a way too.
Which bands will be bringing the beat to the Bowlo? Two lively local bands – Lenny and the Jets, and Hibernation Sickness, as well as Tennessee Lights from the Sunshine Coast, who recently rocked it at the Gympie Music Muster.
As well as donating the entry fees from Bowlo Rocks to Movember, the club will be raising awareness and funds for men’s health projects such as mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer, with raffles every Friday night this month, Movember tins on the bar for cash donations, and they also have their own Movember team. If you would like to join this team or make a donation, go to https://movember.com/t/bilo-bowls-club?mc=1.
If you would like to know more about the Movember cause, check out https://au.movember.com.
And if you or someone you know needs to talk to someone about mental health, you can contact:
Lifeline 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
Beyond Blue Support Service 1300 22 4636
Sane (Lifeline moderated online forums) at www.sane.org or Helpline on 1800 187 263.
Biloela also has its own excellent website www.mentalhealthbiloela.com with everything you need to know about local support services, events, programs and other mental health resources.
