Health and Wellness Fair promotes healthier NIU

By Lauren Dielman

Students can get free health screenings, chair massages, acupuncture, skin care information and more all in one place: the Health and Wellness Fair.

Friday marks the 20th annual Health and Wellness Fair. Employee Relations collaborates with Recreation Services every year to host the Fair.

“We believe that collaborating with any program that is interested in the health and wellness of the campus is a program that we need to be associated with,” Eric Appiah, assistant director of Recreation Services, said in an email.

Karen Smith, program specialist for the Employee Assistance Program, said there are 89 organizations participating in the fair this year. Some organizations include Student Health, Illinois State Organ Donor Program, Women’s Wellness Camp, the DeKalb Clinic of Ophthalmology and Blissful Yoga.

An organization is scheduled to be at the fair to give free massages.

“The most popular is the chair massages,” said Deborah Haliczer, Director of Employee Relations at Human Resources Services. “They are everyone’s favorite.”

Attending the Health and Wellness Fair can be beneficial, said Haliczer.

“Some people come there not knowing they have underlying health issues, and find out they have high blood pressure, for example,” Haliczer said. “This is a really nice educational event.”

Appiah said nearly everyone can find something health-related in the fair to apply to their daily lives.

“We hope that employees leave the wellness fair learning more about the various elements of wellness and how to integrate wellness in their own lives,” Appiah said in the email. “Employee Assistance does a great job helping employees balance their life at work and outside of work, so we thought it would be best to help with the resources that we have available to us. It has been a successful event for 20 years and we hope to continue making it a success.”

Haliczer said an average of 1,500 people attend every year. Students, faculty, staff and retirees are all welcome to attend.