The 2018 Health Bash offered students the chance to learn more about various health services on campus and get a free flu shot.

The Health Education Resource Center hosted the event on Tuesday in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

The health bash provided students, faculty and staff a chance to receive their flu shots, although Eastern’s medical clinic does offer free flu vaccinations during all of fall for students.

In the Grand Ballroom, various health services from Eastern and other parts of the Charleston/Mattoon area offered brief presentations of their services, answered questions and handed out small souvenirs.

Becky Ogle, a nurse practitioner at Eastern’s medical clinic, said she believes the health fair gives the students an opportunity to have a better understanding of the resources offered to them.

“We provide so many services that often go unseen, so I highly encourage people to come in even for a general counseling or just to see what we offer,” Ogle said.

Joshua Stice, associate director of Eastern’s Adult Fitness Program, said some programs heavily rely on the health fair to give them a better opportunity to grow the number of people aware of them.

Stice said the Adult Fitness Program is hoping the fair can increase awareness of what they offer, and they also hope to find more people wanting to get involved.

“We have been around for quite some time, and it seems we now and again get a surplus of people who come in, but then some drop off,” Stice said. 

Community health major Emily Johnson said she thinks it is nice to be able to put a face with the names of the services to help with comfortability.

“I feel like if I’m going to go in and talk about being sad, it’s better to know who I’m speaking to ahead of time,” Johnson said.

Some stations had presenters from programs or services that aren’t located at Eastern, but are still available to students.

Taylor Diskin from the Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Services in Charleston said they offer their services throughout the year to the Charleston community, including Eastern.

“We do come to campus quite a bit and do resource tables, and a lot of sororities and fraternities will have us come out to talk about our services,” Diskin said.

Diskin said it is imparative for them to participate in programs such as the health fair.

“It’s very important for us to be raising awareness and being out there doing prevention programs,” Diskin said. “We want to be there any way we can, especially for college students, because campus sexual assault is very prevalent.”

Ryan Alderman, a graduate assistant at Eastern’s health promotion department, said it is also important to educate the general public.

“Getting this word out to the public, especially in a community like Charleston, that is a very rural and isolated community that happens to have this pocket of diversity right in the middle of it, that’s what makes this even more unique,” Alderman said.

Trevin Milner can be reached at 581-2812 or at tlmilner@eiu.edu.