Boy's Wellness Day

Burgeo Academy will hold a boy's wellness day on April 18th, 2011. The boys will receive wellness bags full of educational information and during that day receive 4 sessions on the topics of safe tattooing and piercings, hazy love and safe sex, the dangers of energy drinks, and making informed decisions regarding drugs and alcohol. Energizers, prizes, and games will be done on that day as well. All boys will also stay for a healthy lunch, catered by our local Lioness Club. Last year, we did a Girl's Wellness Day and it was very successful!

Update (March 10, 2011)

I pleased to announce that our Boy's Wellness Day is well on the way. We now have our committee in place: The public health nurse, the mental health and addicitons counsellor, the child youth and family services social worker, the local RCMP, myself as the guidance counsellor, the community youth network (including the CIS person) and of course our Respect Team (15 youth from grades 7-12) and our student council members (who offer suggestions and approve our ideas). We currently have secured a building for our wellness day (top of the arena) and have our local lioness ladies catering a healthy lunch (pasta, garlic bread, salad, and cookies). We have also decided upon fruit trays for our morning recess snack. We have now begun to confirm our presenters, who will be coming from Corner Brook (a 2 hour drive to Burgeo) and our sessions have been narrowed down to the following: safe tattooing and piercings, hazy love and safer sex, the dangers of energy drinks, and making good decisions/choices in life. We are now seeking information packages/pamphlets for our registration bags and deciding upon what energizers to use thougout the day. We also decided to purchase some Sportschek certificates as gifts/prizes for the day. It's going to be a great event! More details later!

Update (April 19, 2011)

Our Boy's Wellness Day was a huge success. On April 18th, 2011 we gathered together our 43 boys, grades 7-12 and went to the upper deck of the Burgeo storm Arena. The boys were given registration bags full of information handouts, along with items like a bottle of water, a treat, key chain, deodorant, body wash, hack sack, and the usual "boy items". Introductions and housekeeping items were done and the presentations started!

First up, we had Julie Crouse, from Corner Brook, presenting on Hazy Love. She had boys wearing oven mitts and drunk driving glasses, trying to put a condom on a rubber penis! The boys laughed and cried, but in the end learned the dangers and consequences of drinking and having sexual encounters.

Next, Julie presented on "Safer Tattooing and Piercings". She did a slide show, depicting pictures of tattoos and piercings gone wrong! Juile provided the boys with information regarding how to be sure a tattoo artist is safe and clean. She also gave education around to get piercings done safer. The boys were grossed out at some of the pictures, but learned a valuable lesson and are now educated around what to do FIRST, before getting a tattoo and piercing!!

Our snack break was at 10:45 a.m. and the boys were served cookies, fruit, and juice. Afterwards, we moved into our third session of the day.

Constable Kimball Vardy was our third presenter and presented on the topic of "Popular Drugs and their Effects". He educated the boys using a slide show and true stories from his experience as a RCMP officer. The boys were intrigued, to say the least!

Lunch was provided to the boys by our local Lioness Club. Salads and lasagna and garlic bread was the main meal, accompanied by cookies for dessert. A great meal, to say the least. After lunch, our local student band, "Rough Start" entertained the boys!

At 1:00 p.m. the boys walked over to the community center for a session with Tony Pottle, from the North Atlantic Top Team Mixed Martial Arts and got active doing "muay Thai Kick Boxing" and "Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu". They had sooooo much fun and were really into all this self defense information!

At 2:00 p.m. we had our finial session of the day. Our local public health nurse, Darlene Strickland, did a presentation and video on "The dangers of energy drinks". It was full of useful information and the video was very moving.

At 3:00 p.m. our committee had the boys fill out an evaluation form regarding the day.