Reversing our Garbage and Fighting Landfill!

What does a company do with old stock that is no longer usable but they don’t want to throw it away? They send it to Reverse Garbage of course!

Reverse Garbage, a business in Marrickville Sydney, has a mission: save materials from going to waste in landfill and to renew their value by making them available for purchase and reuse by families, students, artists and community groups. Every year they receive over 35,000 cubic metres of items that would otherwise end up in landfill. That’s around 100 football fields’ worth of industrial off-cuts, over-runs, art and craft materials, stage props, knick-knacks, furniture and other odds and ends.

As first time donors, the team at Harlequin Kids were very excited to discover an alternative to dumping old stock. We packed up our van with our donation and were so shocked/excited to see that it was over 600 kilos worth! That’s 600 kilo’s diverted from the tip and landfill! Whilst it was our first donation, it definitely won’t be our last.

Harlequin's Bushfire Relief for Schools Initiative

Over the 2019/2020 summer, over 18.6 million hectares were burnt during the worst bushfires Australia has seen. During that period, more than 170 schools were assessed for damage with Bobin Public School on the Mid North Coast and Wytaliba Public totally destroyed. It was a tremendously difficult time for so many students and their families and Harlequin wanted to help lighten the burden.

For the children who lost their homes and did not have a school bag to start the school year with, Harlequin pledged to directly help them by donating a “Harlequin School Bag Pack” to start their new school year with. We asked parents, School Principals and P&C’s to nominate any deserving families to contact our CEO with their nomination and Harlequin would send them a package.

We sent over 150 packs out to children across Australia with a value of over $20,000.

We know that the recovery from this disaster will be long and arduous and our thoughts are with all the affected families.

Sydney Children's Hospital - Randwick

Harlequin is a proud to support the Sydney Children's Hospital. One of our hard working staff members, Isabella, spent hours especially hand pressing funky designs onto over 200 hundred bags to donate to the children's ward and special school.

Here she is with Jessica Cooper from the Sydney Children's hospital, who was thrilled to receive the bags on behalf of the children.

If you'd like to make a donation to the hospital jump online at schf.org.au

Barnardos Mother of the Year

As a proud sponsor, Harlequin was delighted to celebrate 20 years of The Barnardos Mother of the Year Awards hosted by the Prime Minister at Kirribilli House on Mother’s Day.

The largest and most recognised national award celebrating motherhood, they acknowledge the enormous contribution that mums make in shaping Australia’s future.

Our heartfelt congratulations go to, the inspiring 2015 winner, Leanne Robson from Queensland. Leanne has successfully raised an intellectually impaired daughter, who also suffers from heart defects, and has dedicated the past eight years to being the care-giver to three children with extreme disabilities.

Fresh Wota Bilingual School

Inspiring Melbourne Mum, Tracey Farnsworth, has been supporting families in Vanuatu for the past six years.

Currently she supports nine local children to attend school, as well as supplying their uniforms and supplies such as reading, exercise and Naplan books. After becoming aware of the overcrowding in schools and extreme lack of resources, Tracey started Progress Pikinini to help provide reading and textbooks to schools all over Vanuatu’s 80 islands, comprising 500 schools and between 50,000 and 70,000 children. The recent devastation of cyclone Pam has magnified this need like never before.

Harlequin is thrilled to be connected with the remarkable work Tracey does. To make a donation big or small go to gofundme.com/supportlocalschool

Rainforest Rescue

Rainforest Rescue is a not-for-profit organisation that has been preserving and restoring rainforests in Australia and internationally since 1998 with the vision to Protect Rainforests Forever. Rainforest Rescue’s projects re-establish rainforests through planting, maintenance and restoration programs, as well as purchasing and protecting high conservation value rainforest and preserving its biodiversity.

Rainforest Rescue’s ‘Daintree Buy Back and Protect Forever’ is a core preservation activity where approximately sixty hectares of threatened Daintree rainforest, which was zoned for development, has been protected forever. A principal Rainforest Rescue restoration project is the ‘Plant a Rainforest’ program where almost 60,000 trees have been planted to restore protected Daintree rainforest.

The Daintree is the world’s oldest rainforest at over 135 million years old and contains an almost complete record of the evolution of plant life on earth.   While lots of work has been done, over two-thirds of the Daintree lowlands remain unprotected.

Harlequin Kids is proud to support the amazing work that Rainforest Rescue is doing to protect this precious place.

For more information visit their website here.

Go – Series Kids Events

This year, Harlequin sponsored the Go-Tri and Go-Duatholon events at the beautiful Manly Dam and St Ives.  The Go-Series is a fabulous event that’s all about giving it a go and providing amazing opportunities for 7-15 year olds to participate in a series of multi-sport events.  Despite the early start, the kids were a buzzing combo of nerves and excitement!

With more and more children taking part each year, Go-Series gets kids outside and active, assisting their development and competitive spirit in a positive and welcoming environment!

Angels Hope

Harlequin Kids supports anti-bullying and the amazing work that Angels Hope do to eradicate bullying amongst young people in Australia.

In the 2014 Federal Government report on Bullying in Australian Schools, it was found that each year; 1 in 4 students are bullied in school, onlookers are present in almost 90% of instances of bullying, 1 in 5 children aged 8 to 15, have experienced cyber bullying and almost every day of the year one person under the age of 25 commits suicide.  Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.  Let’s work together to put an end to these harrowing statistics.

Check out angelshope.com.au to see what you can do to support this fantastic cause.

CEO Sleepout

Our CEO, Penny, once again ‘slept rough’ for the Vinnie's CEO Sleepout on 19 June 2014.  The annual sleep-out helps raise awareness and much-needed funds for the more than 100,000 homeless Australians sleeping rough each night.  Fifty-eight per cent of homeless people under 35 years of age, 44% are women and sadly, 12% of the 100,000 are under 12 years of age.

Harlequin raised $7,000 for this wonderful cause, helping Vinnie’s to fund 365,164 bed nights, 1,197,633 meals and assistance on 1,161,239 occasions to people experiencing disadvantage and homelessness in 2014.

Barnardos Mother of the Year

Our heartfelt congratulations to the 2014 Barnardos Mother of the Year, Gloria Nascimento from NSW. Gloria was awarded for her generosity and positive outlook in helping other young cancer patients and their families to cope with life-threatening disease, whilst caring for her own terminally ill child.

As the largest and most recognised national awards celebrating motherhood, they acknowledge the enormous contribution that mums make in shaping Australia's future through their role in nurturing children to help them realise their full potential.  Harlequin's annual support totalled over $10,000.

Safe Work Awards

The annual Safe Work Awards recognise businesses and individuals making positive changes to work health and safety, workers compensation and return to work. Team Harley was thrilled to be a Finalist with Transfield Services for our Hi-Viz Kids safety initiative.

Here is our CEO Penny and some of our team, all frocked-up and glamorous, accepting our award with Brian Chandler of Transfield Services.

Road Safety Awards

An initiative of the Australian Road Safety Foundation, the Road Safety Awards seek to establish new standards of excellence in road safety and reduce road trauma, something very close to Harlequin's heart.  We were very proud to be a finalist for Hi-Viz Kids - our child road safety initiative.

Here is our CEO Penny with Steven Minnikin, the Assistant Minister for Public Transport and Brian Chandler, our partner at Transfield Services, at the event.

The Colour Run

Colour me Happy!  Team Harley took to Centennial Park to take part in this rainbow-filled event, also known as the Happiest 5K on the Planet. Celebrating health, happiness and individuality, we walked, danced and cha-cha-ed our way to the finish line, covered in colour from head to toe.

To take part in the colourful run, find all the information for upcoming events here.

Landcare Australia - Corporate Challenge

Team Harlequin got dirty for Landcare Australia at one of their amazing corporate challenge days in Lane Cove National Park. We spent the day weeding, planting and participating in fun games and challenges. Penny even had a cuddle with a snake! Some great results were achieved with almost 1,400 seedlings planted and one hectare of mature privet removed.

See the video of our day here.

You and your workplace can get involved too, contact Landcare AU and register your interest today.

Hi-Viz Kids Official Launch 2013

Hosted by the Today Show Harlequin, together with our Safety Initiative Partners, Transfield Services and Transport for NSW, officially launched our Child Safety Initiative, Hi-Viz Kids at Parklea Public School in October 2013. Valued at over $260,000, the seed program provided 5,400 highly visible ergonomic school backpacks to kindergarten students in over 80 public school in Western Sydney. The Harlequin Hi-Viz Kids backpacks were provided at no cost to the students. A fun morning was had by all!

National Tree Day

Team Harley hugged trees on Sunday 28th July 2013 for Planet Ark's National Tree Day and the biggest community tree-planting and nature care initiative in Australia. As a donating partner to National Tree Day, Team Harley lent a helping-hand and had a fabulous day planting trees in the sun at Sydney Park.

Harlequin's Biggest Morning Tea

It’s a sobering fact that cancer will touch us all in some way during our lives, with one in two Australians diagnosed with cancer before the age of 85.

Harlequin sat down to a hot cuppa and some tasty tidbits to once again support the wonderful work the Cancer Council does to assist people living with cancer and to fund vital cancer research.

Together, we can make a difference!

The Cancer Council's Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is held every year.

Kiss Goodbye To MS

Every May, Team Harley puckers up to Kiss Goodbye To MS Multiple Sclerosis affects over 23,000 Australians.

MS is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system (the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves). Unfortunately the progress, severity and specific symptoms can not be predicted. Sometimes they even vary within the same person. For some people, it is characterised by periods of relapse and remission while for others it has a progressive pattern. For everyone it makes life unpredictable.

We dare you to wear and share #kissgoodbyetoms

Conservation Volunteers

As part of our continuing commitment to Saving Our Planet One Bag at a Time Team Harley had a day out in the sun planting trees with Conservation Volunteers at Moore Park in Sydney.

We had a great day learning how to prepare, plant and care for seedlings. We even ran into Sydney's Lord Mayor, The Honorable Clover Moore, who was walking her dogs in the morning sunshine. She was kind enough to stop and have a chat with the whole team.

Here's Mark, our Duke of Despatch, giving our CEO a few tips on planting her seedlings.

Barnardos Mother of the Year

A huge congratulations from Team Harley to the 2013 winner of the Barnados Mother of the Year, Hasiba Cesko.

Born in Bosnia, Hasiba had her first child at 19 and her second four years later, during the middle of the Balkan Wars. Her early twenties were spent shielding her son and daughter from unspeakable horror – bullets, bombs and soldiers, as Hasiba described, sometimes with her own body. She managed to keep her family alive and immigrated to Australia in 1996 and now lives in South Australia.

Harlequin was incredibly humbled to have been part of another year with Barnardos, and to donate over $16,500 in cash and prizes to this year's event. 

Cancer Council Pink Ribbon 2012

Laura and Jess were 'pretty in pink' at the annual Cancer Council's Pink Ribbon Breakfast, which helps the Cancer Council assist the funding of breast cancer programs for research, support and advocacy. Overall 500 women attended the delicious Aqua Dining brekkies, helping to raise over $85,000.

After attending the breakfast, we received this lovely letter:

Dear Penny,

I am writing on behalf of the Aqua Dining Group and Cancer Council to give our sincerest thanks for your generous contribution towards the Pink Ribbon Breakfast Series that took place in October. This year we raised over $85,000 in much needed funds for breast cancer research and support services which could not have been achieved without your support. We look forward to an even more successful breakfast series in October 2013 and hope you can join us again for this worthy cause! From all of us here at Aqua Dining, we wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.
 
Warm regards,

Aqua Dining Group of Restaurants

Vinnies 2012 CEO Sleepout

Our, CEO, Penny, took part in the Vinnies CEO Sleepout, by 'sleeping rough' with 1,003 business leaders nationally, to help raise funds, awareness and break down the prejudices that Australia's 100,000+ homeless face every day.  With nearly half of our homeless being woman and their children, Penny was very humbled to be involved in such a thought provoking and inspiring event that raised over $5.2 million for Vinnies homeless services.

To see Penny's message click here.

Barnardos Mother of the Year 2012

Harlequin has been a devoted supporter of Barnardos for over a decade now.  After listening (with a box of tissues in hand!) to the powerful stories told by each nominated Mum, Ros Dodson, an inspiring mother with enormous strength and deep compassion, was crowned Barnardos Mother of the Year.

Harlequin was delighted to have donated over $20,000 in cash and prizes this year.

Just Brass!

The budding musicians at Just Brass were very excited to receive their new Harlequin Quartet music bags. A wonderful program run by the Salvation Army to help children get involved in playing brass instruments.

Go the Salvos!

Para Ti' - a Favela school in Rio de Janeiro

Our CEO, Penny Montague-Curry, met the inspiring Director of the Para Ti' School when she visited the Favela slums of Rio de Janeiro.

The school is run purely on donations and the dedication of volunteers who help educate the children for a better future.  With no school bags to carry and protect their work, Harlequin was delighted to donate hats and Harlequin school bags for every child at the school.

Keep up the good work Para Ti'!

Telstra Business Awards

It was a momentous occasion for the Harlequin team celebrating the prestigious and coveted Telstra Business Awards.

As finalists, Harlequin was recognised in two categories, the Peoples Choice Award and the AMP Innovation Award, for successfully introducing an innovation that positively impacts culture, the environment, goods or services in industry. A significant and very proud achievement.

Go Team Harley!

The Footpath Library

The primary purpose of the Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library is to give the homeless and disadvantaged access to books.  What an amazing initiative.

Harlequin gave a helping hand by donating $9,000 worth of library bags to help protect their valuable books.  Penny, our CEO, was lucky enough to go along and meet the founder, Sarah Garnett and a couple of her volunteers to see how it all works.

To see more head to footpathlibrary.org

The Book Bank Project

Harlequin had the pleasure of donating $4,000 towards The Dymocks Children's Charity Book Bank Project.

Dymocks Children's Charities is striving to improve reading attitudes and engagement within our school community and we were very happy to see all the children proudly holding their new Harlequin Eco Library Bags at the launch.

Go Dymocks!

The Salvation Army

in conjuction with the Salvation Army - Aged Care Plus and Optus, Harlequin was pleased to donate $6,000 towards providing school bags and pencil cases to disadvantaged and Indigenous children from remote North Queensland.

Well done Salvos!