SHS hosts annual health fair

The Annual Health Fair is put on by students to raise the awareness of health to the campus community members. The event is not well-known among students and many aspects of the fair are not publicized.

Katie Crowell, a junior at UW River Falls, is just one of many students who are unaware of what goes on at the health fair of its existence.

“I wish they would advertise it a little more,” she said. “I haven’t even heard anything about it; if I did then I might go.”

The Health Fair will mainly be advertised through the use of posters. The HHP techniques class is also doing some promotions for the Health Fair. Students will also be putting advertisements in the River Falls Journal and in the stalls of residence halls.

Keven Syverson, the health education coordinator, is helping students organize promotions for the event.

“It’s up to the students how much they advertise and how they want to run things,” he said.

The students have full control over who is involved in the event, how things are going to be run and where advertisements will be placed.

“Every year is a little different depending on what students want to do,” Syverson said.

Last year about 700 people attended the event.

“We are hoping that we will have just as many people come through, if not more,” Syverson said.

In past years the event has been held at Karges Center, but this year it will be held in the University Center Ballroom. The Annual Health Fair has been an ongoing event for about 13 years. It has changed a little every year depending on what students want.

Senior Ainsley Hargest is another student who said she does not know much about the events being held during the health fair.

“If I knew more about it, I would want to go,” Hargest said. “I want to get my cholesterol checked and just see what it’s all about.”

Students, faculty and community members will be allowed to get their cholesterol checked for free and learn more about their general health. In previous years the event has been about health in general and
is focused on more than just one thing.

Information about vitamins, nutrition, smoking, herbs, and many more things will be available at the health fair.

UWRF sophomore Brian Wojan said he thinks the health fair is a good thing for students and faculty. He is also another student who is uninformed about the annual health fair.

“I think in the last year they have stepped up their health concerns with balance choices in foods and other stuff around campus,” he said.

The health fair is set up to raise people’s awareness about their own health. It is designed for people to learn new things they may not have known otherwise and to make the campus community more aware of their lifestyle choices.

“Some people will not find it meaningful and others will,” Syverson said. “It depends on where people are in their lives.”

While some students attend the health fair every year, others who are not informed of the event tend to miss out.

“I have seen it from the outside but I have never been,” Hassan Ali said.

With the event being held in the University Center this year, it may attract more people to the event.

“I think it is a good thing and I don’t know why we don’t go,” Bhavita Patel said.

The event is free for all people and will be a good way to provide information that may not otherwise be readily available to students.