After a long week of school, some people may want to wind down and have a place to relax while hanging out with friends or meeting new people. The Wellness Center offers Wellness Fun Fridays where students get to do activities to relax and meet new people. 

The Wellness Club was created by juniors Xitlali Solis and Flor Amaya. “Our goal is to promote social and emotional wellness,” Solis said. “School could be stressful for a lot of us, especially students who are taking higher level classes and [have] academic pressure and academic validation is a real thing.”

There are 10 active club members in the club. An average of 10 to 15 students attend the meetings The 5 club officers are: President Flor Amaya, Vice President Xitlali Solis, Secretary Elisa Chaidez, Treasurer Diana Garfias, and Publicity Chair Camila Saldana. In order to join and be a part of the club you need to attend the meeting on Mondays at the Wellness Center during Lunch. 

Wellness Club was originally made to help the Wellness Center gain more attention so that more students are aware of the resources available there. “I know a lot of students don’t feel comfortable going into the Wellness Center when they need help because they don’t know our staff pretty well,” junior Flor Amaya said. 

The club supports the weekly Fun Fridays, which include engaging activities and it gives people fun activities to de-stress. “The activities for one, are really engaging, it’s usually warm in here and quiet,” senior Valerie Tanori said. 

They originally met on Wednesdays but due to staffing availability, they switched to every Friday. For some people, these activities could give people a break from school. “They kind of relax my mind after school and stressing over homework and work,” junior Diana Garfias said.

Club Advisor Brenda Chaidez said that the club is aiming to get fundraisers, so that the Wellness Center could get more funding. They have done Crumbl cookie sales after school, food sales during club booth day, and merchandise sales. “With the fundraising that is done, we purchase supplies to hold Fun Friday activities,” she said.

There are many different activities that the Fun Fridays partake in. Many of them are arts and crafts activities such as slime, origami, clay art, stress and rock painting. In the future the club plans to implement having the Folklorico teacher do a class for Fun Fridays. “The activities are always new and fun, so there’s always something fun to look forward to, especially on Fridays,” senior Edgar Hernandez said. 

Depending on the activity, the amount of students who participate in the Fun Fridays varies. “Some activities are more popular than others, but we always try to do activities that students are interested in,” organizer Nataly Tostado said. 

In order to get more student participation, the Wellness Club announces Fun Fridays to teachers so that they could tell it to their students. They also announce to students that are around the Wellness Center. “Whenever we see students around the Wellness Center, we like to advertise it to them to come join as well,” Tostado said.

Overall, the club’s goal is to promote mental health and well being. “These Fun Friday activities are focused on providing an opportunity for students to decompress, build community, and have fun,” Chaidez said.