Colton, CA—On March 15, Colton High had a Wellness Fair during lunch in the Macintosh Gym to spread awareness and to provide support for issues surrounding mental health.
In the gym were a variety of booths with volunteers from organizations that offered resources towards LGBTQ+ youth, sexual assault victims, drug and vaping users, and students who experience suicidal thoughts and/or other mental health issues.
One of the people running a booth was the Director of Strategic Partnerships for LGBTQ+ Health, Gustavo Hurtado, he said “We’re basically, right now promoting our Wellness Center in downtown San Bernardino, as well as our Art Crawl happening on March 22 from 4-9pm. It’s open to the public, it’s free, and it’s basically centering queer joy.”
Hurtado continued by explaining how the Art Crawl works “It’s gonna feature artists from their youth ages 12 to 26, across the country, but particularly folks from the Inland Empire (IE), they’re getting to show their artwork and also display it outwards, and it’s their first exposure in the community to being a kind of almost professional artists.”
The event was an opportunity for the booths to give their organizations exposure, pass out flyers to those in need of assistance, and to break the stigma surrounding mental health.
Another person behind one of the booths, Youth Coordinator at California Health Collaborative, Carlos Antonio Vasquez said, “I work under the program where it’s basically tobacco prevention. I give out resources, I give presentations, and I educate the youth on the dangers of vaping and smoking tobacco. There’s a lot of resources here on the table right now about quitting if anyone you know wants to quit.”
The event was also made to be fun for the students, every student had received a card with spaces to get stamps and if it was completed prizes could be achieved, some teachers also offered extra credit for the completion.
Not to mention each booth had different prizes students could earn by engaging with the booth, answering questions, spinning wheels, or even just listening were some of the ways students could get a prize. A few of the prizes included: pens, fidgets, stickers, candy, and squishies.
