For the third year in a row, university health educators are encouraging students to take charge of their wellness on Halloween.
The third annual Welloween, a free health fair, is Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the basketball courts of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center.
Welloween is a free event that includes health screenings, massages, fitness classes and food. Students and faculty also can receive flu shots for $20.
Health Educator Julie Sturek has planned this event all three years and said that each year it has been successful, drawing around 1,000 students.
She started the health fair to expose students to their available health resources on campus.
“I saw it as an opportunity. There are a lot of great health and wellness resources on our campus that students are not aware of,” Sturek said. “I saw it as an opportunity to bring all of them together and offer health and wellness screenings and information to the BSU community.”
Sturek said the fitness classes along with the chair massages are what bring students to the event, but half of the students who attend also take advantage of the free health screenings.
Body composition, blood sugar and blood pressure tests are available, along with sun damage screening and spinal analysis.
“[The free screenings] give students a baseline of their current health and wellness status — maybe they aren’t going to the regular family physician and this is an opportunity to get some information on their current health status,” Sturek said.
Josh Bisher, senior program director of recreational services, said the free screenings are a great resource for students and should attract them to the event.
“It’s free [and] it involves vendors that aren’t part of Ball State,” Bisher said. “It’s a success because people are getting free consultations — free services they would normally have to pay for if they went to the vendor.”
Welloween also will feature a costume contest and attendees can get free water bottles, gym totes and reusable grocery bags.
