By Tiffany Wong
CONTRIBUTOR
Two pig lungs, one red and healthy, the other black from tobacco burns, lay out for inspection in Sutton Lobby last Wednesday. The graphic display was part of a booth on smoking put together by the Charter County Health Department for Milligan’s annual Wellness Fair on March 23.
“If you show people something they don’t see normally, it gets the message out more effectively,” said Tim Bailey, a Health Department worker in charge of the smoking booth.
Other booths from local organizations included The Allergy, Asthma, Sinus, Pulmonary and Sleep Center, where students could get a free skin test for allergies. A booth for the Health Resource Center offered blood sugar level tests.
The fair, hosted by the community nursing class as a capstone for the nursing degree, also featured booths set up by students.
“The goal of the fair was to promote healthy lifestyle choices and education,” said Milligan’s campus nurse Susie Dayton, who organized the fair. Last fall she made a campus-wide anonymous survey to inquire about the health of Milligan students. She discovered reoccurring health issues: sleep deprivation, high levels of stress, allergies, asthma and eating disorders.
The nursing students were assigned topics based on this survey. Some of their booths featured “drunken goggles” for substance abuse, a popcorn machine and the superhero Running Man.
One student booth, put together by seniors Brittany Parks, Whitney Sonessa, Renee Hensley, Sarah Brown and Lizzette Dugger, focused on mental health and ways to handle stress. Their booth featured a Wii so that students could play a short game before heading to class.
“Our goal is confronting very real issues the student body is dealing with,” said Parks. “With this fair we are able to teach and have fun with the students and hopefully they’ll have a good time and learn about something they’re dealing with.”
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