By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly852
On Tuesday the Springfield College community celebrated its 11th annual Fresh Check Day, an event aimed at promoting mental health awareness at different universities.
Students at the three hour event visited different interactive booths to learn about different activities that combat mental health issues. These activities included writing about ‘your elephant in the room’ – an issue that stands out in a person’s life, jotting down an insecurity on a piece of paper and throwing it out and marking down a compassionate act that students could do for themselves.
Before visiting each booth, students were given a piece of paper marked one through ten. To complete the Fresh Check Day circuit, they would have to visit each station and receive a stamp on their paper from the booth they visited. Once all ten stamps were obtained, students could cash in their slip for a donut from Rice’s Fruit Farm.
One of the stations students needed to visit was the Humanics in Action booth. The activity of the Humanics in Action station was to fill out a card to someone that they appreciate and are grateful for. One of the booth’s volunteers, Mike DeJoseph, recognizes how a small message can make the biggest difference in someone’s life.
The inspiration behind that is a little note of appreciation, especially when it’s hand written, can go so far and it can make someone’s day,” DeJoseph said. “It can be the positive encouragement that they need to keep going and doing good things.”
Another station was run by Springfield College Athletics and the Student-Athlete Leadership Team. This station featured an obstacle course, requiring participants to jump or duck under hurdles, knock over cones with a hockey stick, shoot a basketball into a bucket and jump rope five times.
Before starting the obstacle course, participants wrote down how they felt about their day. Some of the most popular responses were ‘tired’ or scared’. After completing the course those responses changed however, with most feeling amazing, energized or great.
The last booth on the slip was the resources table. At the resources table, students learned of resources, activities or clubs on campus that offer a helping hand to those in need. The table also promoted Pride Cares, the peer to peer mental health support program at Springfield College. Adam Feit, one of the staff members that helps run Pride Cares, believes that Fresh Check Day is important to have, especially at a school like Springfield College.
“We talk very much about the humanics philosophy and educating the whole person and spirit, mind and body for leadership and service to others,” Feit said. “How many of us actually take time to work on that line, to transcend that Springfield spirit. This is just another way to reinforce the mission of Springfield College so we continue to be our best by being our best.”
Each person has their own takeaway from Fresh Check Day. It could mean having their issues recognized, being a rock for another person or another event held on the campus green. To Feit, it’s the awareness and recognition that mental health matters.
“Bringing together all the resources, support services, faculty, staff and most importantly our students to let them know that we are here for them,” Feit said. “We have a wide variety of programs to help them work through the typical situations that our students will go through- transitions coming to a college, issues that come around on campus and academic stress. We’re here to remind everybody that we’ve got you and we got a lot of people that care about you.”
One of the annual staples of Fresh Check Day is a station where students have one-on-one chats with trained members of the Springfield College Counseling Center to check in on them and talk about any issues that they may have. Christine Johnston was one of the staff members available to chat with. Johnston has been working with the counseling center since the inception of Fresh Check Day.
“Fresh Check Day is one of the most important events that we can hold because we’re highlighting the spirit, mind and body of our students and everyone who’s here on campus,” Johnston said. “Our students get to celebrate mental health. They get to learn about the warning signs that somebody might be struggling and how to connect them with resources, and really making sure that no student falls through the cracks and that we’re able to take care of everyone on campus.”
The Fresh Check Day program was started by the Jordan Porto Foundation, whose mission is to prevent suicide, promote mental health and create a message of hope for young adults. Springfield got connected to the Jordan Porco Foundation through alum Tom Steen and his wife Tina, two huge supporters of mental health who lost their son to suicide.
“We are really grateful to Tom and his family for that connection and we’ve been doing Fresh Check Day ever since,” said Johnston.