By Alexander Pedersen
The last year has been nothing less than a nightmare for everyone, with almost every event being canceled or postponed indefinitely. Even our everyday lives are harder and making connections with people is one of the hardest things to do nowadays. Being a successful, well-rounded, and happy person is all part of wellness. Achieving this is one of the hardest things to do in college and with the addition of COVID keeping yourself “well” is even harder. Sometimes when things are bad all you need is a little boost.
Among the chaos of the world, on Feb. 23, 2021, McKenzie Mathewson, Jodi Payne, and Hope Howard put together what is formally known as the first annual Wellness fair. This is the boost that a lot of people needed right now especially in a town as small as Gunnison. This event brought together both students and community members from around Gunnison county.
Community members came together with the help of Resident Life to put up booths inside of the University Center. Each one of these booths had a specific focus toward one of the eight ideals of wellness. These ideals are physical, financial, spiritual, social, intellectual, emotional, and environmental wellness.
The goal of the event was to give students ideas on overall wellbeing as well as giving students resources around the county to reach out to. Sam Bernard, a freshman Computer Science student, said “It was really cool, I liked all the different booths and it was really nice to have an event like that on campus.”
In a world like this the idea of bringing together so much community with the sole goal of student wellness is very special, especially in a place that can be as isolating as Western and the Gunnison valley. “I thought it was super great that it was one of the first in person events to happen on campus since COVID. Also, it was really great that the community was so heavily involved because we are in such a small town it’s nice to have everyone participate at the college” said Rowan Block, a Junior.
At the end of the day the community came together in ways that it has not done since Covid and all for the good of the students. Look out throughout the remainder of the semester for more ideas and tips on wellness!