Ocean Grove to host Bowl For Your Lives Australia Day tournament

A POWERFUL symbol of connection and support will be on display at the Ocean Grove Bowls Club on Australia Day (Monday, January 26), with Bowl For Your Lives (BFYL) set to host a signature tournament to bring the community together and break down mental health stigma.

A full field of 144 bowlers will compete under the dome, with the tournament serving as the official pre-curser to the Victoria-wide bowls Mental Health Awareness round on January 31.

BFYL was founded by former Victoria policemen Shane Hafner and Cameron Ryan, who discovered bowling as a method to deal with their struggles spurring from diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The organisation has now grown to more than 2,000 members and will expand nationwide this year.

Through the tournaments and events, Hafner said that he and Ryan had seen many people facilitate open and supportive conversations to tackle their issues with the help of others who may be feeling similar.

“When you deal with mental health issues, the fatigue that comes with it and the triggers that can hit you in public… you isolate yourself.

“With bowls, it’s got that environment where you actually just find that you aren’t thinking about anything else.

“You’ve got people playing the game with you and once you’ve bowled, you get involved in conversations and you make friends.

“You can do it at your own pace, people are very respectful if you don’t wish to talk about certain circumstances or you just want to bowl – it’s a perfect environment.”

Hafner said competitors will attend the tournament in Ocean Grove from across Victoria, coming together with spectators and non-competitors to create a safe and reassuring environment.

“What people will see is everyone participating in a game, having fun and just enjoying themselves.

“When you set the environment about mental health, we have found in the past that people attend because they heard what it’s about and they just want to come and be a part of it.

“There’s no specific genre to what impacts people because everyone’s impacted to some level, but if we just create that environment where it’s supportive, everyone just walks away being more considerate from then on.”

For more information on the organisation, head to bowlforyourlives.com