Campus Rec hosts Wellness Fair

On Wednesday, May 11, Portland State Campus Rec, in conjunction with the Center for Student Health and Counseling, will be hosting a Wellness Fair. The event will be held on the third-floor basketball courts from noon to 2 p.m. The event is open to all Portland State students, faculty and staff, free of charge. So far, 25 vendors from PSU and the greater Portland area are confirmed for the event.

“Wellness” is operative word here. This isn’t just a fitness or health fair, but it will instead focus on multiple areas of life that come together to create overall wellness. Obviously fitness is a crucial element to overall wellness, but the event also tends to social, spiritual, environmental and even financial health. The fair seeks to be a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to personal wellness. Almost every Portland State resource will be under one roof for the day, including, but certainly not limited to, the Women’s Resource Center, the Queer Resource Center and the Disability Resource Center.

The Wellness Fair will be set up very similar to a marketplace or bazaar, except held indoors. Each vendor will have their own booth, and I’ve been told that each booth will have some type of interactive offering for the attendees. For example, Foot Traffic will be offering gate analysis for the aspiring runners out there, and SHAC will be offering blood pressure testing.

Further offerings include advice on managing student loans from the Portland State School of Business Administration and the Office of Student Financial Aid, nutritional advice from Weight Watchers, chiropractic information from the University of Western States, massages from the East West College of Healing Arts—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Though only 25 vendors are confirmed at the moment, it is likely that many more will be added by the day of the fair. (For a complete list of confirmed vendors, see the end of this article.)

I was particularly pleased to find out that the personal training staff from Campus Rec will be offering body fat testing. (Don’t worry, the actual caliper tests will be performed behind a privacy curtain.) I’ve always advocated using a mirror and/or body fat testing as tool for judging progress. This is the perfect opportunity to try ditching the scale and to get a more concrete idea of where one is really at from a standpoint of body composition.

If all the free advice, services and resources weren’t enough to bring people in, food and prizes should do the trick. Numerous refreshments will be available, as well as samples from companies like Clif Bar and Whole Foods. And while the specifics haven’t been sorted out as of the time of writing, I’ve been assured that there will be some cool prizes raffled off throughout the fair.

The Wellness Fair is a fantastic opportunity for students, faculty and staff to familiarize themselves the wide variety of resources that are out there to help them achieve complete health and wellness. While I tend to emphasize physical fitness through nutrition and exercise, the truth is that they are only pieces of a much larger picture. For those interested in getting their wellness running on all cylinders (or maybe just want some free goodies), definitely check out the Wellness Fair.

Confirmed vendors/booths as of April 28: Portland Parks and Recreation, Starbucks Coffee, Clif Bar, Whole Foods, PSU Campus Recreation, PSU Student Affairs, PSU Business Affairs, Foot Traffic, Weight Watchers, Portland Clinic, LINK Therapy, PSU Bike Hub, PSU Women’s Resource Center, PSU Queer Resource Center, PSU Disability Resource Center, PSU Sustainability, PSU Multicultural Center, PSU Student Activities and Leadership Programs, East West College of Healing Arts, Oregon Board of Massage Therapists, National College of Natural Medicine, Oriental School of Medicine, University of Western States, Kaiser Permanente, and PSU Center for Student Health and Counseling. ?