The ASWSU department of community affairs will be hosting its first ever Green Day mental health festival in April.
Jonah Oh, junior criminal justice major said he came up with the idea of Green Day in his freshman year after experiencing a mental breakdown and painting his face green. He bought various green-colored items and passed them out to residents in his dorm as well as random students on campus. Now, he hopes to expand the reach of the event to bring awareness to mental health on campus.
“I feel that we can so easily reshape the way we talk about and educate people about mental health here at WSU,” Oh said. “It does not have to be an alarming subject.”
Last year, while working as an RA in Scott-Coman Hall, Oh decided to hold a Green Day event in his dorm to educate students about the importance of mental health and to normalize conversations about mental health for students, he said. It was the biggest event in Scott-Coman’s history.
“It’s mental health. I get it, it’s deep,” he said. “But at the end of the day, reaching out does not have to just be about getting help. It can be simply self-care.”
Oh said he is currently working on getting Green Day established as an RSO so that the event can continue after he graduates. Currently, organizers are working through Housing and Residence Life.
“I just want to establish something at WSU that is a way to normally bring up the subject of mental health,” he said. “I think that Green Day in itself as a riff off the idea of ‘feeling blue’ is a little comedic and I think that’s exactly how we change the narrative of talking about mental health.”
The festival will be held from 1-5 p.m. on April 11 on top of the Holland-Terrell library.
Community affairs director Sebastian Sanders said for the first time ever, there will be a third housing fair held this year in April which will be hosted by ASWSU. It will be called the Last Chance Housing Fair and will be held from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on April 17 at Terrell Mall
“I’m calling it the last chance housing fair because the last one was really not good,” Sanders said. “We’re going to try to spur a little bit more traffic with it on the mall.”
Sanders said he has been working closely with sustainability deputy director Kassandra Vogel in order to hold a pizza box drive which will be referred to as Pizza for the Planet.
Donated pizza boxes will be collected and turned into biochar, Sanders said, which is a charcoal-like substance that is made from the burning of organic materials.
Senators also voted on Bill 53-34 at the meeting, which was authored by Senator Anusha Bose and Senator Brian Kim, and proposes amendments to the powers of senators-elect. The bill was unanimously approved.
ASWSU meets at 5:30 p.m. every Wednesday in CUB 204.
