Students 'Recharge' At Health Event

That typical gym smell of sweat and tears was replaced by the far sweeter aromas of fruit salad, lavender eye masks and some lighter exercise Saturday when Thrive: Recharge came to the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC).

Student members of the Community Health Initiative organized the event, which turned the fourth floor of the MAC into a congregation of tables offering information about sleep, relationships, self awareness, nutrition, and physical activity, and attracted several hundred visitors.

Up to 40 people at a time lined up for the free massages and sleep lessons. The event also offered workshops on yoga, acupuncture and kickboxing.

But for many students, the main draw was the considerable—and well advertised—array of freebies including bottles of water, Nalgenes, gym bags, and lots of healthy food.

“I came for all the free stuff,” said Alex P. Douglas ’09, who, along with two friends, left with five bags of goodies.

In addition, there were raffles for a digital camera, a Coop gift certificate and an iPod. Proceeds went to Relay for Life which had a booth at the event.

“We had people lining outside the door for the first fifteen minutes,” said Emily W. Hogeland ’07, who chaired the event’s Programming and Promotions Committee.

One Currier blocking group did particularly well in the raffle, with four members winning prizes including a video iPod and some of the gift certificates, according to Christopher N. Acton-Maher ’07, who won an iHome speaker and is also a Crimson editor.

“Our block-mate [Joseph K. Lee ’07] is in charge of the whole thing. He’d been encouraging us to buy tickets, and we ended up with about 100 between us,” said Acton-Maher.

“UHS [University Health Services] very generously purchased all the freebies. Everything was funded by UHS,” said Hogeland, who added that the Undergraduate Council had agreed to help with advertising.

—Staff writer John R. Macartney can be reached at jmacartn@fas.harvard.edu.