Saint Anselm held its inaugural Fresh Check Day event on the JOA quad on September 30th. Fresh Check Day is an “uplifting mental health fair that includes peer-run interactive booths, free food, music, and exciting giveaways.” Campus organizations, ranging from Active Minds to Residential Life to the Academic Resource Center, were represented in the fair.  

Bridie Mager, Assistant Director of Residential Life and Education, has been working on the Fresh Check Day project since February of this year. She said that students expressed a need for mental health support, and that when she suggested a Fresh Check Day to administration as a way of meeting that need, they said, “Let’s make that happen.”

Mager had followed Fresh Check Day for many years prior to hosting her own event. Similar gatherings have been held at colleges around the country for quite some time. As stated on the organization’s website, “Fresh Check Day aims to create an approachable and hopeful atmosphere where students are encouraged to engage in dialogue about mental health and helps to build a bridge between students and the mental health resources available on campus, in the community, and nationally.” 

Lauren Reilly ‘22 serves as President of the Active Minds club, a student organization focused on awareness and advocacy for mental health. “For us at Active Minds, partnering with the mental health committee and head game was such an uplifting experience to be able to all collaborate together in working for a common goal,” she said.

Active Minds hosted a booth for Nine out of Ten, “which educates in suicide warning signs and how we can all work together to help those who are struggling,” Reilly explained. Hundreds of students signed a banner at the booth to show their support.

“We wanted to be able to remind everyone that you are never alone. We all have each other on this campus and together we can make all the difference,” she continued.

NAMI, or National Alliance on Mental Illness, was one of the resources offered to students. Jordan Trombly ‘22, representing NAMI at the Sept. 30th event, expressed that the goal of NAMI’s presence at Fresh Check Day was to help start conversations about mental health.

 Trombly said, “It’s good to be more open about talking about mental health and mental well being,” and stressed, “You are not alone, and it’s okay to not be okay.” 

The Academic Resource Center hosted a booth at the event, raising awareness of the crucial relationship between mental health and academics. Stephanie Firth ‘23, student program assistant at the ARC, said, “Fresh Check Day is making sure you’re taking care of your mental health, not just your grades. Academics are more than the grades you have.”   

Academics are indeed more than a student’s grades, and students present at Fresh Check Day agreed with this. Mia Tidd ‘24 explained the importance of her friends to her mental well-being, saying, “Having my support system around me is the most important thing for my mental health.” RA Emma Link shared that Fresh Check Day offered “a lot of useful resources, especially as an RA. It’s a really good place to encourage mental health awareness, especially for those who might not have grown up with the resources they needed.”

The Fresh Check Day committee, responsible for organizing the event on campus, was made up of a mix of faculty, staff, and students. Mager described the committee as a “good mix, from student affairs to nursing.” She added that the nursing department in particular has been a “huge, huge help,” and that several of the students on the committee were nursing majors. 

Right now, the plan is to hold an annual Fresh Check Day, but Mager said she would love to eventually see an event held every semester. She stated it’s “just really important to know that we’re here to support our students when it comes to their mental health. We saw a need and we’re providing resources.” She said, “Right now, we’re starting here, and we’ll see how we can grow it and make it more fun and exciting for everyone.”