Cascade High School’s first ever Self-Care Week

Allie Ward (10) and Ingrid Stockman (10) serve up dishes of oatmeal at the healthy eating station on Monday. This station was the first event of a week focusing on social, mental, and physical health. Photo Credit: Vanessa Ibarra (11)  

As Cascade High School (CHS) prepared for spring sports, CHS decided to enter spring on a healthy note. For four days starting on Monday, March 10th CHS clubs collaborated and ran a health week. This week was meant for students to focus on their wellbeing as well as others wellbeing. Jaxon Groby (12) was the organizer for the care week. 

“I talked with Ms. Grace and told her I wanted to bring it to our school in 7 seconds. I then went to talk with Ms. Robinson, and she had this fantastic idea of a self-care week. I agreed and we decided to get the clubs involved so everyone is involved, not just Leadership,” explained Jaxson Groby (12). 

“We wanted to let all the clubs on campus have an opportunity to connect with the entirety of the Kodiak community,” said Robison, CHS Leadership teacher, “and take care of Leadership students who have done so much for our school this year, by giving them a bit of a break.  Leadership limited their involvement to promotion for this ‘spirit’ week.”

Groby worked with the school clubs to organize activities for the week that went with their club. These activities were meant to get students thinking about taking care of themselves in different aspects. The activities consisted of healthy eating, muscle relaxation, a nature walk, an Only7Seconds assembly focused on the importance of connection, and a day focused on passing on kind words. Each club had a day of the week for their activity, the activity was either during flex or lunch. 

To start off the week, the Culinary Club aka Skills USA had a healthy snack station run by club advisor and culinary teacher Mr. Haberberger. During flex, students lined up outside of Hab’s room and waited for a serving of hot oatmeal. After students got their oatmeal, there was a toppings station with options including honey, brown sugar, powdered sugar, coconut, chia seeds, and raisins.  

“Oatmeal lowers cholesterol, it’s nutritious and it provides energy. The idea was to show all the different toppings you can add to make it taste better and be more nutritious,” said Mr. Hab. 

On Tuesday, Sports Medicine teacher Mr. Betz hosted a deep tissue clinic during flex. This activity was perfect for athletes to release muscle tension. Betz had various stretches prepared, along with items to help the stretches such as baseballs, golf balls and foam rollers. These items were meant to be placed in certain muscle areas to add pressure and release muscle tension. 

 “I think the exercise went well, especially for athletes. I thought it helped get rid of some of my soreness after I had a game and it really helped my muscles,” explained  Xiodali Soils (11) a volleyball club player who participated in these exercises. 

On Wednesday Sustainability Club had scheduled a walk up Rattlesnake Hill during lunch, but due to the rainy weather it was unfortunately cancelled.  

Thursday was the Only7Seconds assembly during Flex. Only7Seconds is a local, nonprofit organization that addresses youth loneliness by encouraging and empowering the youth to connect with one another. Luke Wall, executive director of Only7Seconds visited CHS. He has worked with the organizations for over a decade. Wall shared his personal stories connected to youth loneliness and the stories of others who have experienced youth loneliness in different forms. Wall voiced a clear message to students concerning the impact they have on others, not only through words but also through actions. One of the activities was about encouraging students to text a short message to someone they care about and creating an impact in their day. Almost every student in attendance took out their phones and let someone know they cased when prompted by Wall who hoped to encourage students to realize the impact of their actions big or small. 

To end the week the last activity was a clip-it-forward activity organized by the Interact Club. During first period clips with compliments, made the previous week at an Interact meeting, were sent out to Interact members. The goal was to clip someone anonymously. As the day went on, students were seen walking around with clips on their backpacks, sweaters, hats, sleeves, etc.  

This week filled with small activities was a great chance for students to learn how to take care of themselves and take others into consideration. Hopefully this self-care focused event will continue in the years to come.