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SWC reFRESH campaign aims to revitalize students’ health

The undergraduate student government Student Wellness commissioner organized reFRESH 2016, a month-long campaign to help students improve their hygiene and health. (Daily Bruin file photo)

By Jodutt Basrawi

Feb. 15, 2016 11:22 p.m.

An undergraduate student government office will allow students to discuss a variety of hygiene-related issues, including the cultural norms of shaving and the importance of dental care, during a month-long campaign beginning this week.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council Student Wellness Commission organized reFRESH 2016 to help students improve their hygiene and health, according to the campaign’s Facebook page.

Talin Markarian, the commission’s marketing director and fourth-year philosophy student, said she hopes reFRESH will help busy college students with their hygiene.

“In times of heavy workload and stress, people tend to neglect their hygiene and health,” Markarian said. “This is especially true in college, where students have a host of different activities to juggle.”

Lauren Phinney, Student Wellness assistant commissioner and fourth-year human biology and society student, said reFRESH was also launched to market the commission as a whole. She added each of the 12 committees in the commission will host different events each week.

Week 7’s theme “reCLAIM” will focus on reclaiming one’s body health and cultural perceptions of body health. She added themes for Weeks 8, 9 and 10 will focus on recycling, recharging and refining health habits, respectively.

Phinney said the Student Wellness Commission rarely runs winter quarter month-long campaigns.

“We wanted to start a trend for these month-long campaigns,” Phinney said. “It is a good way for all of the commission’s committees to work together.”

Marvin Chen, USAC Student Wellness commissioner, said the campaign will include an inaugural oral health fair on campus in Bruin Plaza on March 10, where the UCLA School of Dentistry will conduct free oral screenings and provide other dental resources.

“The oral health fair will also include resources from the (Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center) and helpful information about (University of California Student Health Insurance Plan) health insurance,” Chen said.

Allyza Afable, co-director of the commission’s Student Health Advocates committee and third-year nursing student, said many organizations and committees, such as UCLA Residential Life and Planned Parenthood, have worked with organizers and will attend some of the many events that will be hosted by the reFRESH campaign.

She added the organizations will participate by tabling and providing health expertise to students at campaign events.

Phinney said they hope reFRESH can be a yearly event, if it is successful, and a foundation for future hygiene-related campaigns.

Event organizers will distribute free flu kits to students on Bruin Walk at the campaign’s first event Tuesday.

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