Mullet for the chop — if price is right
Logan Roberts is prepared to forego his pride and joy — but only if the price is right. Logan, a pupil at Te Ranga School, has a mullet. His mum and dad don’t really like it, but he loves it and says it’s not just the look he likes, it’s practical too.
“It keeps the sun off me in the summer, I don’t have to put sunscreen on because it covers my neck, and in the winter it keeps my neck warm,” he says.
But despite that, its days may be numbered and he may have to find another way of keeping cosy after July 1.
That’s the date of the school’s fundraising Mud Madness mud run.
Te Ranga Mud Madness is replacing the school’s annual Pig and Possum Hunt gala that was cancelled last year and won’t be held this year due to Covid-19 pandemic uncertainty. Logan has set himself the goal of raising the most money of any student — and if he does that, he says the mullet will go.
“[Dad] Paul and I have been trying to get rid of this mullet for two years — and nothing,” says mum Vicky.
“We even asked [principal] Brendan [Wilson] to change the school rules but he said ‘no, we support individuality’.”
Vicky has backed Logan with his goal through her contacts as an accountant and so far he has raised $1530.
“I just got on the bandwagon and thought, this is going to be one way of getting what I want, which is getting rid of his mullet.”
Last year was Logan’s first at Te Ranga School and he was disappointed not to be able to do the possum run that is part of the Pig and Possum Hunt gala.
There was double disappointment when this year’s hunt and gala were replaced with a mud run.
“But then I thought, yeah, I want to do it because I like sports and I’m active — I don’t stay inside,” he says.
‘‘Logan just loves anything outdoors, he’s a very outdoor kid. He’s dyslexic and school doesn’t come easy to him, but for him it’s more than just a mud run it’s something he can do really well in,” says Vicky.
He will be able to get a practice run in as well, as even before the school mud run was announced he had registered for the Junior Tough Guy and Gal Challenge at Baypark Stadium on June 15.
If the mullet does go, it will be for the second time, with Jay at Faded Barbershop in Tauranga offering to do the shave and put the school name and hawk emblem into his hair. He won’t charge Logan and has made a donation to Logan’s fundraising efforts.
The last time the mullet got the chop it was also Jay who did the deed, back in 2018.
Students who do well at fundraising can win some great prizes and Logan says if he wins he would like to donate his prizes to others who might not be so fortunate.