Wellness Fair promotes healthy living

Natosha Hubbard
Blue & White Flash / Staff Writer

Wellness is not just physical, but it is mental and emotional as well. In an effort to serve the community and students, Jackson State University held its annual wellness/health fair on March 21, 2012 in the new student center ballroom A-B from 9 a.m. – 3p.m. The fair has been an annual event at JSU for over 20 years.

“Having the wellness fair is important because we want to get the community and students involved”, said Ollie Harper, Director of Student Health at Jackson State University. “We want students and people in the community to come with health questions and we will provide experts to give them answers”.

There were many participating agencies to provide important health and wellness information to participants. Mississippi Blood Services was on hand for blood donations. Participants could also get their iron, weight, cholesterol and blood pressure checked in addition to receiving immunizations and HIV testing.

Wellness also has mental and emotional aspects as well and a representative from the Latasha Norman Counseling Center was present to assist students and community participants.

“Mental health checks should be done for the whole wellness of the person”, said Mary McClendon, a graduation clinician at JSU. “We are here to bring awareness to the importance of mental health. We should not just take care of ourselves physically, but mentally as well.”

The Mississippi Department of Health was also a participating agency in the fair. The Department of Health wants to bring awareness to the global tuberculosis issue. “Global TB awareness is everyone’s concern because it affects every continent”, said Donald Franklin, Disease Intervention Supervisor at the Mississippi Department of Health. “We want everyone to observe National TB Day March 29th.”

For more information on tuberculosis visit www.cdc.gov/tb.

March is Red Cross month and representatives were on hand to provide students with information of services their organization provides. Hero’s is a fundraising effort being held until May 31, 2012. Any club or organization can participate. For more information on Hero’s call (601) 353-5442.

“We are here to support JSU in any way we can”, said Cassandra Terry, office coordinator for the Red Cross.