Year 9 ‘Cycle to Break the Cycle’ and 100km Bike Ride

This year, the Year of Challenge (YOC) program has centred on Micah 6:8, calling us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. Each experience has been designed to embody these values in practical, meaningful, and impactful ways.

Traditionally, our Year 9 students have taken part in the 100km Bike Ride, a challenge focused on setting personal goals and working hard to reach them. However, after thoughtful reflection last year—and in line with the themes explored throughout the YOC program—we chose to reshape this challenge into one that better reflects advocacy and our call to “walk humbly.”

From this, the Cycle to Break the Cycle campaign was created in partnership with Prison Fellowship. This peer-to-peer fundraising initiative highlights a significant issue: children with an incarcerated parent are six times more likely to enter the prison system themselves. Through the campaign, students raise awareness and funds for the Extraordinary Lives program, which supports these children and helps break the cycle of disadvantage.

As part of the initiative, each student set their own fundraising goal for Prison Fellowship’s Extraordinary Lives program. Using an online platform, students tracked their training rides, logged their challenge-day distance, and sought sponsorship from their personal networks. They also set their own ride goals for challenge day, with some aiming for the full 100km.

The team page can be viewed at the campaign website (cycletobreakthecycle.com.au/t/2025-year-9-year-of-challenge), and once registered, students can share their individual sponsorship pages.

The message behind this campaign is simple yet powerful: through the Year of Challenge, students are already stretching themselves and testing their limits. By joining Cycle to Break the Cycle, they ride not only for their own growth but also for children who need support to step out of the cycle of crime. Every kilometre becomes an opportunity to change a life.

On Wednesday 19 November, from 7.10am to 4.00pm, 29 students completed their rides along the Dandenong Bypass Trail, Eastlink Bike Path, and Koonung Creek Trail, travelling from school to Elgar Park and back.

Students rode in groups based on their selected distance goal—70km, 80km, or 100km—choices they had been training toward during YOC classes this term. They were supported by nine staff and nine volunteers, with each group accompanied by a designated support vehicle that met them at rest stops with their bags.

Congratulations to all students for their determination, resilience, and impressive effort! Thirteen students completed the full 100km. While every student achieved something remarkable, a few deserve special recognition:

• Abigail F – the only female student to complete the full 100km.
• Sydney M – learned to ride a bike at the start of this term and rode 80km.
• Belen A – rode 80km on the smallest bike in the cohort, with tyres half the size of others’, requiring twice the effort to keep pace—yet she never gave up.

• Charles T – completed the full 100km with unwavering focus and without a single complaint.

   

Together, students have raised $4,468 for Prison Fellowship, including one student who raised $500 and one staff member who raised $440.

Thank you to all staff, volunteers, and the administration team for their support and commitment in making this program such a success.