Overall, midterms and college can be stressful; students need breaks in order to refocus themselves on their work and have the correct knowledge on how to stay stress free. 

Students can resolve their stress problems by learning how to manage them, making the Stress Less event a helpful event for any college student. 

The Annual Stress Less event, put on by the Student Health Advisory Committee, was held last Thursday. 

 “[The Stress Less Event was held] close to finals week to give students a break and help relieve stress,” said Kristina Shriver, chair of Student Health Advisory Committee. 

The Stress Less event had a relaxing atmosphere, helping students to interact with each other and relax accompanied by intriguing activities, music and puppies. 

This free event was full of exciting interactive activities and booths ran by clubs and organizations on campus. 

They had a nutritional informational desk handing out flyers with information on how to stress less and be healthy, a first aid kit booth where students would spin a wheel to answer a true or false question resulting in a free first aid kit, and a “Make Your Own Stress Ball” booth where students were able to make their own stress balls out of flour and balloons.

The Stress Less event also had a bubbles booth for students to socialize and have fun and yoga demonstrations throughout the day. 

The 4 Paws therapy dog volunteer organization joined the event with many dogs for students to play with and pet. 

There were about 15 friendly dogs, each accompanied by their owner. Each dog had about three to four students petting and loving them at a time. 

It was clear that the dogs were the most therapeutic aspect of the event and that students were benefitting emotionally from their presence. 

Freshman Hailey Ruebsamen said, “I was walking out of the cafeteria and saw puppies standing next to a sign for the Stress Less Event, so I had to go and check it out.” 

The 4 Paws station waas a big hit.

Students can benefit significantly from being able to interact with dogs, especially those students who have pets at home who they cannot see on a regular basis. 

Freshmen Melanie Yeoman and Caroline Griffin both agreed that playing with the dogs helped them feel less stressed. 

“Every day I’m so stressed out, so it’s really helpful to be able to come to this event and play with dogs,” said Griffin.   

Susan Chamberlin, volunteer for the 4 Paws organization and owner of Toby, a corgi, said that coming to events like these are very beneficial to her as well. 

As a volunteer and hospice, she finds it very rewarding to go to events where she brings joy to people through her dog. 

Chamberlin said that through her dog Toby, she is able to help people whom she otherwise could not. “It’s nice to be able to see the smiles on people’s faces,” said Chamberlin. 

Along with being able to interact with dogs to relieve stress, students had many opportunities to learn about managing stress, from being able to make and take home their own stress balls to collecting pamphlets about how to deal with anxiety, eat healthier and learn how to relax.