Upcoming health fair aims to educate, engage WU students
Waynesburg University will hold its annual spring health fair on Thursday, April 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Marisa Fieldhouse to educate students on spiritual, physical, mental and social health with interactive activities.
“The health fair has been a tradition at Waynesburg for over 35 years,” said Nurse Director of Student Health Services Jennifer Shiring. “We feel it is important to educate students on how to take care of and improve their health.”
Activities for the 2016 Waynesburg University health fair will include blood donation and typing, cholesterol testing, bone marrow donations and student ministry services for faith-based concerns. There will also be new elements added the health fair this year.
“This year we have added a Derma Scanner to evaluate the effects of the sun on your skin,” said Shiring.
The Derma Scanner uses ultra violet rays to show the sun’s damage on your skin, she explained.
Other new additions include a pregnancy resource van, as well as an eye doctor to test students’ vision. Bell tone hearing screenings will be offered, along with bone density checks.
Free healthy snacks will be provided such as snow cones made with organic fruit juice. Raffles will occur with 40 different prizes including tablets, tickets for Laurel Caverns, tickets for white water rafting and some gift baskets. Raffles will end at the close of the fair.
“Students should attend the health fair for several reasons: to learn about the important role health plays in their daily lives, how to keep themselves healthy, free healthy snacks, interactive exhibits and great prizes and giveaways,” said Shiring.
The planning of the health fair includes heavy student involvement. Sophomore nursing students help run tables with information on topics such as safe tattoos, while senior nursing students help more with the planning.
Kelby Rudash, a sophomore nursing student, is one of the many students involved in the preparation of the health fair.
“We’ve known about the health fair since the beginning for the semester. The planning takes a while,” Rudash said. “They break us up into individual groups and we work on a PowerPoint. Ours is about the prevention of skin cancer.”
This year, the health fair will also be advertised on WCYJ-FM to help attract more students, and the radio station will also be playing live for the event.
With radio broadcasting involved, it is the hope of Shiring and nursing students that the health fair will experience an even greater turn out this year, as the day brings great awareness in a participatory way to learn about the topic of health.