The second ever wellness day was held on Oct. 16 after the PSAT. It was a day where students were able to sign up for activities as a way to relieve stress.
Wellness day was organized by administrator Jane Cocker, counselor Theresa Dethlefsen, social studies teacher Christina Rice and the Wellness Warriors. They organized activities and made sure everything was running smoothly. “I am a wootton wellness warrior and I walked around the school to make sure everything was going according to plan and students were having fun doing their activities. When students didn’t have activities they signed up for I was one of the people who helped them to find a classroom to go to,” sophomore Angela Roach said.
Wellness day was created because students deal with major amounts of stress in high school and they need to be able to find a way to cope with stress. It is an opportunity for students and staff to connect with their students in a non- academic way and in a non-structured setting. “Wellness day is an opportunity for students to bond with other students and staff members they wouldn’t normally interact with. It also creates a stronger bond as a community. It is very important that students are aware of the balance between academics and fun. “Not everything all the time needs to be about school,” Cocker said.
Wellness day had a variety of activities for students, like tennis, listening to music, therapy dogs, board games and coloring. “I went to therapy dogs as my activity and the dog was so cute. It was a relaxing experience and was especially helpful after taking a test for three hours before,” junior Emma Helgeson said.
Wellness day was a success among the staff and students but it took a long time to get everything organized and a lot of work to get wellness day to end up the way it did. Rice, Dethlefsen, Cocker and the wellness warriors put months of work into making sure the day was successful. The weekly meetings for the last month and a half consisted of students and staff on the committee trying to figure out what activities to do. The day was run mostly by students and the staff were there for logistic reasons and to make sure everything was running the way it was supposed to. The students filled Google Forms to find available supplies and helped organize the donations. “They also set up the supplies in the rooms and made posters and announcements to get the word out,” Dethlefsen said.
There were that students did show up and attend wellness day, however others decided to have their own wellness day at home. A total of about 1475 students were present for wellness day and about 625 students stayed at home, according to the attendance office. About 75 more students attended wellness day from last year.
