Ramapo College’s Wellness Coalition is an organization devoted to encouraging wellness in all areas of life. This past Thursday, the Wellness Coalition hosted a “Meet the Wellness Coalition” event in the Student Center for Ramapo students interested in learning more about the coalition.
At the event, the coalition provided various activities and goodies to captivate students’ attention. For hungry students, the coalition offered a Make Your Own Trail-Mix event to promote healthy diet decisions that give students the energy they need to take on their busy lifestyles.
Students could choose from several nutritious ingredients and snacks to incorporate in their trail mix, including almonds, chocolate chips, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pretzels, raisins and granola. Abbe Benowitz, the Office of Specialized Service Disability Counselor and co-chair of Ramapo’s Wellness Coalition, explained that to hold their trail mix, students could use “eco-friendly bags to promote environmental wellness.”
The event also included wellness kits. The Center for Reading and Writing’s Reading Specialist and the Wellness Coalition’s other co-chair Susan Auger said that these wellness kits “contain a variety of items that remind you to take care of yourself.”
These items included a stress ball, Chapstick, highlighter, tea, Purell wipes, coloring supplies, dark chocolate, sticky notes and bubbles. These kits also came with a Stigma Free Pamphlet that gave information about mental health services on campus. Additionally, the wellness kits contained suicide prevention resources: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.
One of the events main attractions was its screen-printed T-shirts, which members of the coalition made by hand right at the table.
“It’s very different than other events. You don’t see people making free t-shirts every day,” said sophomore Nathalie Arboleda. “It’s very inviting.”
Auger said that the coalition’s mission is to promote wellness on campus through a variety of events. She explained that they also aim to focus on the “eight dimensions of wellness.” These are found outside OSS and comprise of physical, spiritual, intellectual, social, occupational, financial, environmental and emotional/mental wellness.
The Wellness Coalition holds one “Meet the Wellness Coalition” a semester, and it marked the coalition’s first event for the spring semester, with plenty more to come. These events include “Extreme Couponing with Anne Eke” on March 1, “Spring into Wellness” on March 28, “Financial Literacy with Steve Larson” on April 4, “Martial Arts Against Sexual Violence” on April 11 and the “Art and Film Festival” on April 19.
The Wellness Coalition is comprised of various dedicated faculty, staff and student members. These members include: Registrar Secretarial Assistant Rachel Marko, Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life Amanda Riehl, Krame Center Outreach Coordinator / Meditation Leader Peter Shalit, Reference, Instruction and Outreach Librarian Hilary Westgate, Coordinator for Commuter Affairs Michael MacStudy, Coordinator of Graduate Training Programs and Psychological Counselor Tara Sager, Women’s Center Coordinator Ebony Jackson, EOF Student Development Specialist Tushawn Jernigan and Res Life Pine and Linden Area Director Sarah Dwyer.
To contact the Wellness Coalition, email wellnesscoalition@ramapo.edu. Follow the coalition using @rcnjwellness or #rcnjwellness.
emeline@ramapo.edu