Nan Nan

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    Have you ever thought about throwing water balloons at your favorite teachers? Students from the Shenzhen (Nanshan) Concord College of Sino-Canada (SCCSC) enjoyed this special fundraising activity last Wednesday.

    The Shenzhen (Nanshan) Concord College of Sino-Canada held a series of activities to celebrate World Mental Health Day to help students raise awareness about mental health.

    SCCSC says that these stress-releasing activities were all based on psychology and included a fundraiser, “funducation” fair, Peer Buddies class on mental health, recharging fair and a movie. These were all held on the students’ break times throughout the day. Fundraising efforts included a food and swag sale, with the proceeds being donated to the local charity “Spring Care.”

    “We want to normalize mental health through this event,” said Eleanor Rao, the director of the Personal Development Center (PDC) at SCCSC. “We all deal with mental health and it’s OK to talk about it,” said Rao.

    One of the most popular activities was the Funducation Fair, which included interactive games and booths aimed at increasing awareness about mental health and ways to get support. One activity allowed students to purchase water balloons to throw at their teachers. “The water balloon throwing fundraiser was designed to help students release stress while interacting with teachers in a fun way,” said Rao.

    This year marked SCCSC’s 6th year holding a World Mental Health Day event and this year the slogan chosen was “You are not alone.” Rao says that she hopes that students who are struggling with their mental health will understand that there are people available to help and that they don’t have to manage it alone.

    A new activity this year was the “obstacle course,” which was designed to help students understand the importance of trust by being blindfolded and allowing a peer to help them avoid obstacles and navigate the course.

    For one student, this year’s celebration was particularly special. Thomas Shi, a Grade 12 student in SCCSC, not only participated in these activities but delivered a speech to younger students in his role as a Peer Buddy. “At first I was not interested in learning about mental health,” said Shi, “but then I realized how useful this is and I kept learning so that I could become a Peer Buddy.” One of the things Shi wants people to be aware of is the power of language, particularly when it comes to making jokes: “Sometimes we don’t realize it, but we should regulate our behavior,” he said, stating that our words can hurt people even without meaning to.

    “We are proud that these kids understand why we are doing this event,” said Amy Rankin, the mental health consultant and program developer of SCCSC. “They understand the link between mental health and taking care of yourselves,” said Rankin . She is also proud that Grade 12 students who have trained to be Peer Buddies teach this content to Grade 10 students, rather than teachers.

    The day ended with a recharging fair that included musical chairs, free hugs, a beauty station and massages.

    This year the movie “Inside Out” was also shown and was one of the most popular activities of the day. The movie’s theme was mental health and the story taught students about the importance of trusting our feelings.