INUVIK
With workshops, activities, speakers and meals, East Three Secondary School welcomed back its students with a wealth of wellness last week.

Teacher Danny Jellema stands over a bubbling pot, getting ready to serve lunch to students, staff and community members at the day-long wellness fair at East Three Secondary School Jan. 8. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photo

"The staff have really gone above and beyond here and have done a great job," said principal Deborah Reid.

"It's a bit of an experiment this year. Last year we did more of a booth thing, and this year we wanted to make it a whole day."

Reid credited the organizers with getting the community involved, bringing in outside expertise, and engaging students.

"I'm learning more about self-awareness," said student Joelle Charlie who, along with Deena Allum, had just wrapped up a yoga session, having gone to a workshop on sexual health earlier Friday morning, Jan. 8.

"I knew what they were talking about, but it was nice to have someone else in to say it, not a teacher like usual," said Allum.

"It's been nice so far, just shows that they care about what we could be going through. That they care about not just what we learn, but how we feel."

Charlie agreed, saying she appreciated the school putting the focus on emotional wellness along with physical and mental health.

Staff are hoping the strategies the students learned will follow them much further than the end of day at the wellness fair. The goal was not only to help them identify potential issues as they come up, but to encourage them to make good choices.

"Wellness in many ways has been a focus in the North, especially at this time of year, with the darkness and the cold," said Reid.

"Having the kids learn to make healthy choices around what food they eat, attendance at school, all that, is what we're hoping to encourage here."

The approach, she said, is meant to cover mind, body, and spirit and include things people may not think of when they talk about health. Reid herself presented a workshop on online safety - things like what kind of social media posts can be problematic and the basics of cyber-bullying prevention - while another session was offered on how electronic devices can have an impact on overall health in terms of screen time.

"It's a really holistic approach," she said.

"And instead of having the kids go around booths, we set it up like a mini-conference for them."

Fair co-organizer Sharla Greenland said she was pleased with how it had been going so far, making particular note of the keynote speech by the Gwich'in Tribal Council's Jordan Peterson. She said the students seemed to be responding really well to the activities and that she hoped they would be able to make use of those skills in their lives moving forward.

"The best thing so far, I was just in the yoga workshop this morning and there were these two boys saying how much they liked it," Greenland said.

"That was really great."'