Take a break from your busy life and participate in one of Lightridge’s oldest traditions,  Wellness Week, which runs  March 23-27.  The week, which focuses on the mental well-being of students and staff,  has been held every year since Lightridge opened. This year, PEER and Sources of Strength have taken charge of planning and executing all the events. 

“We’re just trying to promote good mental health, give students the opportunity to spread awareness for disorders, and just give everyone the opportunity to work together,” explained junior Anna Wolfkeil, who is a member of PEER. Every day of the week, students can participate in different activities during their lunch.

While PEER and Sources of Strength co-organized the week, Monday was completely orchestrated by PEER.

“For our PEER day specifically, we [planned] sensory things, just to allow people to kind of take a break from schoolwork, and they can come play with slime and make glitter bottles,” Wolfkeil said. The activities will be in room 1138. 

Sources of Strength took charge of planning Tuesday’s event in room 1138.

“We chose Tea Day,” explained junior Harika Gunda. “Instead of just drinking the tea, we’re going to be decorating [the teacups], and that’s where the creative part comes in.”

Wednesday will be a day focusing on the wellness of Lightridge’s staff. PEER and Sources of Strength surveyed the staff to find out what they would most enjoy, and ended up partnering with the Culinary Arts classes to bake a Slice of Wellness that each teacher can decorate. 

On Thursday, Heeling House will come to Lightridge and allow students to pet and play with their therapy dogs in room 1138, which is one of the most anticipated events of the week.

“I don’t really know many people that don’t like dogs,” Gunda said. 

Finally, on Friday, Lightridge will have its second ever Wellness Week Walkaround in the library during advisory and lunch. Several different clubs will be in the library with activities to promote wellness and mental health awareness. 

Sophomore Julia Gross, the president of Serving Seniors, will be leading puzzles and giving out candy.

“We’re gonna be talking about what we do. We focus on doing events at the Dulles South Senior Center once a quarter; just serving the local elderly community with themed events and just going out and volunteering,” Gross said.

“We are doing an activity about positive affirmations and the power of words,” said senior Audrey Thorne, who is the president of Women’s Lit club. 

The Creative Writing club will be hosting an activity called Snowballing.

“Students who come to the table will have the opportunity to expand on a story about the craziest day ever,” explained sophomore Sofia Gelston, co-president of the club. “And when they’ve written their couple of sentences onto this piece of paper, they crumble it up and throw it at someone who’s also at this table.”

The game, which continues until the story is complete, is rewarded with candy. 

Even the librarians will be hosting an activity to support wellness.

“We’re going to have a table where students can come and make sand art bottles,” explained librarian Jenna Lombardo. “Students will be able to put a mini funnel into the top of  a bottle, choose different colors of sand to pour into the bottle and layer the colors, and hopefully have a sweet art piece to take with them when they’re done.”

The library hosts similar crafts and trivia games monthly. 

“We just try to create a positive experience… throughout the school,” said Wolfkeil, summing up the goal of the event.  Students can participate in as many events as they want, with the only exception being Heeling House, which has a permission slip available in advisory.