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Fit Fair provides fun, healthy opportunities

Students mingle in Markin Recreational Center during the Fit Fair organized by dietetics majors. Photo by Anna Foley.
Students mingle in Markin Recreational Center during the Fit Fair organized by dietetics majors. Photo by Anna Foley.

Get Fit, Stay Fit held its annual Fit Fair Feb. 5 in Markin Recreational Center. The fair was free to Bradley students and faculty and offered a variety of resources for leading a healthy lifestyle.

The event featured over 30 vendors and gave out raffle prizes such as an Apple Watch and a FitBit. Students entered the raffle by either gaining 15 vendor signatures on their passports, participating in a class offered at the fair or completing an obstacle course.

“I think it is really cool that you have to actually talk to people in order to get your card signed and be entered for the prizes,” sophomore public relations major Katie Goldsmith said. “It encourages people to learn more about how they can be fit and healthy.”

Dietetics students organized the fair, but undergraduates and graduates from many different majors helped run the stations. Get Fit, Stay Fit had its own team available to support, as well.

“I helped to plan and organize the Fit Fair with our Get Fit, Stay Fit Team,” junior health science and psychology double major Tori Faulkner said. “Throughout the event, I assisted in making sure the event ran smoothly by checking on the vendors, volunteers and greeting students and faculty as they walked in.”

Community food distributors and brokers were present at the fair to hand out free samples to passersby. The samples included healthy desserts and entree options.

Vendors said being a part of the fair had many benefits.

“Part of it was exposure [and] wanting to show some new items that fit the parameters of the Fit Fair to gain some additional sales,” Sysco Central Illinois employee Tom Tatham said.

Students were able to taste new foods and drinks that could potentially go on sale at campus dining locations. They were also able to ask members of the Wellness Program questions.

“I helped out at the Dietetics Student Association table,” freshman dietetics major Katie Breen said. “We do a lot of community service, and the Fit Fair is right up our alley.”

The fair provided students with knowledge on different aspects of health.

“I think the Fit Fair is important because it’s a way for people to experience all the different areas of health, and it makes it all really accessible for people, too,” Breen said.

The Fit Fair originally started a few years after the creation of the organization Get Fit, Stay Fit. The event began with fewer vendors and took place in the performance court, but evolved over time and is now held in Markin.

“This year was our fifth annual Fit Fair,” Faulkner said. “It allows for students and faculty to learn about what the Bradley and Peoria community has to offer in regards to achieving a healthy lifestyle. We strive to make the Fit Fair an event that gets people excited to be healthy and take steps to create personal goals. It is important that the Bradley students and faculty know what resources are available.”

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