CANFIELD, Ohio – Sophomore Zachary Berardino whacked a sledgehammer into the small red Chevrolet in the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center auto body collision lab.
It was a stress reliever, not an act of vandalism.
Zachary, a Valley STEM student who plans to study aviation maintenance at MCCTC next year, was one of the schools’ 1,000 students participating Friday in R U OK?, a student wellness day.
“It’s pretty fun,” he said, removing his safety goggles. “Taking the bumper clean off – that was fun.”
Zachary believes it would be an effective stress reliever too.
Freshman Jackson Eisenbraun, also a Valley STEM student with plans to study aviation maintenance, took his turn with the sledgehammer, beating up a gray Honda Civic. He missed a car smash fundraiser earlier this school year and wanted to make sure he participated this time.
“That was fun,” Jackson said.
Jessica Cene, MCCTC’s marketing and recruitment coordinator, said the idea for R U OK?, which started in Australia, was suggested by the school’s counselors after they attended a conference. Ohio State University also hosts an RU OK? event, but MCCTC is the first school in the Mahoning Valley to do it. Plans call for it to be an annual activity.
“Mental health is huge right now,” Cene said. “There’s just so much pressure, so many different things that we didn’t have when I was in school – phones and all of that – and we have 1,000 students in this building, and you never know what someone’s dealing with. So we wanted to make sure that they know there are things to do to cope with mental health, and there’s things, there’s resources to go through.”
Students selected four activities from the 30 provided in which to participate. They ranged from deep breathing, exercise, art therapy and writing to car smashing, sidewalk chalk, therapy dogs and tossing problems listed on a piece of paper into a fire to let them go.
Care providers including Alta Behavioral Health, the Youngstown State University Counseling Department and other organizations and community partners set up a resource fair to ensure students know about available mental health resources.
Pups from Furever Friends Therapy Dogs, which is based in the Mahoning Valley, visited with the students too. Juniors Bella Kelso and Trinity Kale sat on the floor of the resource area, and Dilley, a black-and-white spotted blue tick hound mix, alternated between licking their faces and sitting in their laps.
Outside, students expressed their artistic sides, drawing on the sidewalk in colored chalk. They visited Cinnamon, a goat; Teddy, a pony; and Bugs, a black-and-white rabbit, in between drawing sessions.
The animals belong to Stephanie Yungen, the school’s animal science teacher.
“We prepare them to be veterinary assistants, and they can go to our college to be veterinarians or veterinary technicians,” she said of the 29 students enrolled in the program. “We also have grooming, which students can do that now as well.”
Cinnamon, Teddy and Bugs were a big hit with students, who took turns visiting each.
“Today is for mental health awareness, and animals are very therapeutic,” Yungen said.
Pictured at top: Jackson Eisenbraun, a ninth-grade Valley STEM student, bashes in the front windshield of a Honda Civic at a school wellness activity.