From Zumba to a dog chew-rope making station, a “De-stress Zone” will have activities for all students to help them relax before finals week.

The de-stress zone will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Maddie Smart, associate resident director for Greek Court, said she came up with the idea to help make sure students are academically successful.

“I realize that everyone deals with academics in a different way, so when we were looking at making a sort of preparation for finals week program, we took this idea and created one big program with multiple components,” Smart said. “This way we can serve a lot of different students who are looking to relax. It was really, ‘how can we help the students and also make it super fun?’”

There will be free healthy snacks available along with a “hydration station” which will have infused water, tea and other drinks. Another room, designated a “laughter room,” will have joke books from the Booth Library in it as well as movies. Massage chairs, yoga and Zumba will be in the University Ballroom of the Union.

The Meditation Club will run a meditation room.

For those interested in giving back, there will be a card-making station to help a local organization make holiday cards, and people will also be able to make dog chew-ropes out of fleece for the Coles County Animal Shelter.

Faculty members from the Faculty Fellows, a group of professors who help students in their residence halls, will be coming to help with tutoring in a variety of areas.

“We really wanted to make sure every student was represented,” Smart said. “We got a lot of different offices involved which has been really exciting. We’re really pumped about that partnership.”

Kelsey Cripe, assistant director of residence life, said she is pleased with the amount of interest and involvement so many groups have shown in making this idea a reality.

“Panther Catering has created a menu for us that is very unique to our needs and what we’d like to do,” she said.

The Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteerism, the Meditation Club, Faculty Fellows, the Writing Center and the Health Education Resource Center were all involved in planning the de-stress zone.

Chrissy Miller can be reached at 581-2812 or clmiller9@eiu.edu.