Hundreds of hairy men unite for annual event

ABOUT 220 hairy men converged at Flying Brick Cider House last week to raise awareness and funds for men’s health.

The 14th annual Movember “Gentlemen of Geelong” Lunch, which was attended by AFL coaching great Kevin Sheedy and radio personality Ian Cover, raised an impressive $60,000 for six worthy charities.

These included National Centre for Farmer Health, Headspace Geelong, Lifeline, Movember Foundation, Beyond Blue and Aussie Helpers.

Organiser Andrew Morrison said the focus of the event was about getting blokes together for a bit of fun, while also drawing attention to men’s health and suicide prevention.

Depression and suicide was an issue that touched quite a lot of attendees and the backbone of the lunch was to encourage men to think and talk more about traditional “no go” areas, recognise signs in themselves and others and work on prevention.

The blokes were waited on by the organising committee’s wives and friends, including Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson, who kindly donated her time to help out with the event.

Mr Morrison said Sheedy also attended the event for free, after he won his attendance at another fundraising auction.

“I think he was expecting to sit down at a lunch with 10 blokes, but there were a lot more at this one,” he joked.

The Gentlemen of Geelong organisers were Mick Kramer, David Sharp, Andrew Morrison, Greg Cracknell and Peter Ansell.

Mr Morrison said instead of holding one big annual event next year, the organisers were aiming to run a few men’s health days with guest speakers.

Anyone wanting to donate to the cause can head to au.movember.com, type in “Gentlemen of Geelong” then select their man to donate to.