Submitted Photo Cassadaga Valley students learned about the POUND method of training during Wellness Day.

SINCLAIRVILLE — Over the past four years, the Cassadaga Valley Central School District has made a point of focusing its attention on the health and wellness of its student body. To reinforce this priority, the school community has designed an entire day each year with that target in mind. This year’s Wellness Day took place on Oct. 22 and offered middle and high school students a full day to explore everything from healthy eating to hands-on activities designed to build life-long healthy living. Students were able to choose the sessions they attended based on their interests with  dozens of topics and experiences for them to enjoy.

Wellness Day began with a welcome and a challenge from inspirational speaker Mike Masters. Masters speaks to countless students each year with a focus on developing strong character. His message to students highlighted the need for respecting others and yourself, and creating a positive, lasting impression on others. From there, students moved throughout the building to participate in all the 40 different classes that the Cassadaga Valley Wellness Committee had designed for the day.

In preparation for Wellness Day, students were sent the list of options and were able to sign up for sessions they wanted to attend. The offerings included topics such as good hygiene, sugary beverages, keeping yourself healthy for your career, POUND, smoothies, easy breakfast foods, eating locally, art therapy, healthy cookies for breakfast, ballroom dancing, yoga meditation and much more!

This day wouldn’t be possible without the support of the Cassadaga Valley staff, local professionals and donations from countless individuals. Cassadaga Valley would like to thank Wegmans and Walmart for their donations, and the Community Foundation and Walmart for selecting CVCS as a grant recipient, both at the amount of $500. Finally, the Wellness Day Committee and students at Cassadaga Valley would like to thank the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit, CASAC, The Chautauqua Center, The UB Dental Van, the YMCA, Chautauqua County Health Network, Wegmans, Mr. Little, Coach Masters from Cross Training Football and Tamara Rancho from POUND for donating their time to help facilitate classes.

To continue with the annual event, Cassadaga Valley will be hosting a Wellness Fair in 2017 that will be open to the school and the community, and will be alternating annually between a Wellness Fair and Wellness Day in the future.