As exams loom closer, anxiety starts to take hold of the campus. However, the staff of the Counseling and Psychological Services in partnership with Active Minds recently organized “De-stress with Dogs.” The event, run in collaboration with Mainline Animal Rescue, was in celebration of National Stress Out Week. Around 200 students came out to play with some friendly canines in an effort to relax and relieve stress.
“We tried to do this last year, but the ideas kind of fell through,” Active Minds’ president Robyn Suchy said, “but this year the counseling center actually made a partnership with Mainline Animal Rescue and asked Active Minds to become involved and to just really help students de-stress before finals week.”
This event was organized in hopes that students who missed their dogs at home could feel a bit better. The idea behind the occasion was that petting the dogs decreases the heart rate and therefore brings down the stress level.
“This is kicking off our two-week de-stressing events. This Thursday is Cabrini Night to Stop the Suffering, which is our poetry concert, mental health story sharing event. And then all next week we have a healthy food free bake sale, the take care fair where we’re making stress balls. We have an event on Wednesday night and Thursday night with a pajama party and arts and crafts events.”
All the dogs that participated in the event are up for adoption and in need of good families. Visit Mainline Animal Rescue at mlar.org.
