{"id":42298,"date":"2018-03-06T10:47:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=42298"},"modified":"2021-02-07T20:19:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:19:07","slug":"sait-student-athletes-take-mental-health-awareness-for-a-spin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/03\/06\/sait-student-athletes-take-mental-health-awareness-for-a-spin\/","title":{"rendered":"SAIT student-athletes take mental health awareness for a spin"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he SAIT Trojans stood loud and proud for mental health at the fourth annual\u00a0Make Some Noise campaign Jan. 19-24 on campus.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he award-winning campaign, created and implemented in 2015 by the SAIT\u00a0Trojans Outreach Program, is designed to promote mental health awareness and to start a conversation about the “taboo” subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental health is something that we all have dealt with or seen in one way or another,\u201d said SAIT Trojans cross-country running and indoor track athlete Matthew Vandegriff.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re here to talk if you need us. We\u2019re athletes. We\u2019re students. We know what it\u2019s like to experience pressure. – Matthew Vandegriff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is Vandegriff\u2019s second year volunteering with the campaign\u00a0but he said he has always been an advocate for mental health and describes himself as a motivator to the rest of his peers.<\/p>\n

Billie Rae Busby, creator and chair of Make Some Noise, started the campaign after hearing about the Brentwood murders in 2014, in which five University of Calgary students were killed by a peer at a house party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had gone through a tragedy like that myself where I lost my best friend,\u201d Busby said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what it\u2019s like to lose somebody in a traumatic experience and how that affects people and their mental health. The people who are left behind are the ones who also need some extra help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trojans kicked off the campaign on Jan. 19 with a mobile pep rally around SAIT campus, led by Vandegriff.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the athletes went around campus and into classes making as much noise as possible,\u201d Vandegriff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to see that people actually paid attention to what we were doing and then went \u2018yea, I need to get behind that movement too because that\u2019s a step in the right direction.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Other events during the week included Self Care Sunday, a social media campaign to promote how students can take time to take care of themselves, the Living Library on Tuesday and SAITSA\u2019s Wellness Wednesday.<\/p>\n

One of the campaign’s most popular events occurred on Monday, Jan. 22, where all members of the Trojans athletics took part in multiple one-hour glow-in-the-dark cycling sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spin class was so much fun. I came into it feeling so stressed from my practicum, but after riding the bike for an hour I felt so much more relaxed and relieved,\u201d said Kiesha Perry, Trojan women\u2019s soccer player.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a student-athlete, you have the stress of not just school but your sport as well, so it\u2019s nice to have times like this to take a step back from both of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of team effort from both athletics and recreation goes into this campaign, Busby said, but the true success of the campaign comes from the student-athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why it has grown so much, because of their excitement and enthusiasm to be part of it.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SAIT Trojans stand loud and proud for mental health with the fourth annual\u00a0Make Some Noise campaign back in action, running from Jan. 19, until Jan. 24. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":42301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Make Some Noise for Mental Health","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cross_country","8":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42298"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43665,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42298\/revisions\/43665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}