Thief River Falls Wellness Fair
The week of the 24th-28th of April was Every Kid Healthy week. To recognize this, the Wellness Committee in Thief River Falls held a Wellness Fair in the gyms and the commons on April 29th that was free to the public. Things such as workouts led by TRF community members, a guided meditation, massages, and even a belly-dancing class were offered. Booths were set out in the commons and businesses such as Hugo’s and Big Brother/Little Sister participated. Lincoln’s Key Club was also at the fair advocating for TZD (Towards Zero Deaths).
The fair was held until two in the afternoon and over 200 people attended. When asked about what the goal of the fair was, Rhonda Amundson, the Food Services Director for the TRF public schools, said: “Our goal was to help parents, staff and students know that healthy changes occurring in school can be supported out of school as well. To achieve the goal we brought community resources together for students, parents and the community who want to maintain or improve their health.”
Thief River Falls was lucky enough to have a guest speaker, Hans Diehl, present at the Wellness Fair. Dr. Diehl is a lifestyle and health educator and researcher, directs the Lifestyle Medicine Institute at Loma Linda, California, and is the founder of CHIP program (Coronary Health Improvement Project). How did we get someone who is as accomplished as Hans Diehl? Rhonda Amundson explained saying:
I was made aware of the opportunity to have Dr. Hans Diehl as a speaker for the school district by Ms. Marilyne Sayler. She had found out that Dr. Diehl would be presenting at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for the staff there and also for the community of Grand Rapids, MN. She contacted Dr. Diehl to see if he could add Thief River Falls to his Minnesota tour and arrangements were then made.
Dr. Diehl also spoke at NCTC and DigiKey while in town.
Thanks to local businesses, the Wellness Committee, as well as student and staff, resources to live a healthy and wholistic life are becoming more well known.
