In accordance with the recent dialogue about student stress, ASB will be hosting its inaugural Wellness and Gratitude Week starting this Monday. Throughout the week, ASB will organize de-stressing events during lunch. On Monday, families of students and alumni will bring therapy dogs to the quad; on Wednesday, ASB will show a holiday film in the large gym; and on Friday, clubs will sell various food and craft items in the large gym for the Holiday Faire. During the Faire, ASB will host a “best ugly holiday sweater” contest and will award a prize to the winner.

“We’ve been talking a lot about the campus environment and stress in general, and what we could do to make it a better community,” ASB vice president senior Olivia Jain said. “Last year we did the jump houses [in the spring], and this year we wanted to make it more impactful and have it at a more appropriate time. Especially because it’s the week right before finals, people’s stress levels are really high, and we want to lower them.”

In addition to arranging these lunchtime activities, ASB will be granting requests to send “Gifts of Gratitude” to other students. Students can request to send these small gifts through a Google form available on each of the class Facebook pages or The Talon facebook page. On the form, students will be asked to write a message explaining why they are grateful for the recipient and will have the option to send the gift anonymously. Students should submit their forms before this Wednesday in order to give ASB enough time to gather and prepare the gifts.

“[The Gifts of Gratitude are] just a nice way to incorporate the community and have people realize that they’re being recognized and appreciated by others,” Olivia said. “It’s also a way for us to give back to the student body because they donate a lot for stuff like the food drive.”

Typical gifts include Starbucks drinks, fuzzy socks and homemade cookies; however, ASB is open to granting any other reasonable requests students may think of.

“We’ve gotten [requests for] a large jar of salt and other random inside jokes,” Olivia said. “What we’re going to do as ASB is pay for these things, which are mostly around $3… We aren’t sure if we can grant all of them, but we’re going to try to.

Ultimately, ASB hopes that its effort will help students unwind amid the pressure of finals and balance out their stress with more positive thoughts.

“We want to make the atmosphere very calming and appreciative, because when people get stressed, it tends to get a little chaotic and people feel overwhelmed,” Olivia said. “It’s just a week meant to relax people and help them realize that everything’s going to be OK.”