BY AMELIA SHER
Monday’s Fair at Trafalgar Athletic Centre gave students information on the eight pillars of wellness.
The eight pillars of wellness include emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, social, occupational and financial. Vendors set up booths where students could ask questions, grab some free swag and talk with students. Event organizer Tae Hwang and counsellor at HMC, says that the eight Pillars of Wellness are very essential to student success.
“A student’s success is really dependent on all of these pillars, so we thought that we should bring our community in as well our internal support such as the Career Centre and Student Union which is huge. It’s important for students to come in and know which resources are available to them in the school and in the community.”
Julia Bertola explained that as a busy student having an initiative run by the college was very important to her. “I think this is a good opportunity for students to branch out and improve themselves because they may not always have the time to do that, but here we have a lot of resources and there are people here who want to help you.”
Bertola added that her favourite pillar was environmental. “it’s really important for the Sheridan community to look into environmental issues and to not only help yourself but your community around you.”
One of the more popular booths was “Hands on Exotics” Hands on Exotics is a non-profit organization that is funded by donations and by other outreach programs. It travel’s to corporations, wellness fairs, and schools promoting exotic pet safety, general pet safety and the message that sometimes it relieves stress to hold and care for an animal.
“I think it’s important because this is a therapeutic experience. Holding animals can really help if people have depression. Holding an animal safely is a much better alternative to other methods of handling it. If you have something to snuggle up with it releases hormones and makes you happier,” said Arefin. “This is a very enriching experience for students who are stressed out and we are happy to help them.”
Students were able to hold a baby kangaroo and some said that this had made their day Sofia Gutierez was one of the students. “It was really great, I feel relieved and fresh after holding the baby kangaroo, I’m really happy that they are doing this, I just heard about the wellness fair today and I’m happy I came because now I know which pillars I can focus more on.”
Tae Hwang said he was very happy with the success “It was a very good turn out here today and we hope to host another wellness fair soon, focusing on student success and listening to what they need to succeed is very important to us.”
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