January 12th, 2017
Nate Gotlieb Southwest Journal
Southwest HS to host second Wellness Day
Southwest High School will host a daylong event for all students Jan. 12 that focuses on mental and emotional well being.
The school’s second Wellness Day will include workshops, a film screening, discussions and more. The goals are to get students to look at mental health the same way they look at physical health, create more safe spaces at Southwest and practice more empathy and mindfulness, committee chair June Thiemann said.
“It’s all about creating a culture of wellness at Southwest High School,” said Thiemann, whose kids have attended the school.
“There’s no preventing everything,” she added, “but just being a little bit proactive and getting all this stuff on the table as soon as possible” can help.
Thiemann said the idea for the event stemmed from a mental health emergency at the school two years ago. The school hosted its first Wellness Day last year, and Thiemann said students reported feeling comfortable opening up about difficult topics.
“The main thing is that students really want this,” she said. “They want kind of permission and kind of invitation to talk about real things.”
Students will watch the movie “A Stray,” a film about a young Somali-American man in Minneapolis who befriends a stray dog. Thiemann said the committee plans to end the day with a fun activity such as a mannequin challenge.
The committee received a $5,000 grant from the Minnehaha Creed Watershed District for a yearlong study of how water, wellness and worldview are connected.