Whitewater Wellness Fair held on UWW campus

On Wednesday, October 12^th, the UW-Whitewater Wellness Fair was held in the campus’s University Center Hamilton Room. Over 20 representatives from various student organizations and faculty departments came to show the campus how each of them promote wellness in students. Each organization or department had their own table, and the large ballroom was filled with colorful posters and  flyers explaining how each organization could help students achieve a more healthy lifestyle.

* The Whitewater Wellness Fair serves the purpose of encouraging students to live healthier lives. In addition, those who come to table at the Wellness Fair work to get students more involved with their organizations, so that they can grow and better achieve their goal of promoting wellness in students.

Andy Browning, a Dean’s office employee and UWW CARE Team case manager, was one of the main contributors to the organization of this event. In addition to assisting in the organization of the Wellness Fair, Browning does a lot for students by providing student outreach, and mental counseling through the University Health Center. “ We are really trying to let students know that we are there to help them do better” says Browning “for me, its’ also a lot of fun.” It is no surprise that a number of college students find themselves in a lot of stressful situations. These situations can range from a freshman being homesick, or a senior having trouble figuring out what they are going to be doing after graduation. When asked about why he was at the Wellness fair, Andy Browning talked about how they want to make students aware of their services. “Younger Students don’t always know how to handle their problems” expressed Browning, who firmly believes that some students just can’t go it alone when things get tough.

While faculty members like Andy Browning work very hard to help students avoid high stress levels, so do students like Erica Fischer, a representative for the campus reflection space. The campus reflection space is a room located in Esker Hall room 104. This room is entirely devoted to being a quiet, calm space that students can go to when they are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or sad. Created five years ago, the campus reflection space is designed to give students a quiet place to “relax, renew, refresh” as described by Fischer. “ We want to bring more awareness to relaxation being a wellness strategy” says Fischer. Thanks to a sign-in sheet, Erica Fischer and other overseers of the campus reflection space, are able to keep track of how many people utilize the room. “We are very pleased to see that we have gotten a lot of really positive feedback” says Fischer.

In addition to being mentally well, the wellness fair also encourages students to pay more attention to eating healthy, as well as making sure the way healthy food is gathered is ecologically friendly. Erica Otto represented the Whitewater Earth Initiative at the wellness fair. The WEI is responsible for overseeing the campus garden, and collecting prairie seeds in the area for local food banks. “We go out and collect prairie seeds ourselves to avoid the use of pestacides” says Otto, who has personally been a part of the prairie seed collection. “We hope to educate people about the dangers of things like pestacides, and we want to promote growing and eating organically.” The Whitewater wellness fair is held on campus every year.