Madison Bowe / Winonan
The goal of Winona State University’s happiness club is as simple as the club’s name: to promote happiness. Achieving this goal is not always quite as simple. The happiness club strives to improve others’ happiness, promote positivity and educate others on mental health awareness. They particularly focus on educating people about depression and anxiety. Although the club is relatively new on campus, they hope to make a big impact.
“With what Winona has faced these past few years with some serious tragedies, cyber bullying and lots of other difficult situations, I feel that this club will benefit the university,” senior club president John Otis said.
Since this is the club’s first official year, they are just getting started on many of their projects. The club originally started in the spring of 2015 in a health communications class taught by professor Tammy-Swenson Lepper. A group created a campaign designed to promote positivity, called “#ProjectPositivity.” After realizing they did not want the positivity to end with the conclusion of the class, they came up with the idea for the club.
“We just wanted Winona to be a happier place overall, and that’s what we aimed to do. After that, my group members graduated and I started last fall on my own,” Otis said.
The club has worked on projects this year to get their name out and to be better known around campus. They started out by doing simple random acts of kindness to promote themselves. They have also done several sets of what they call “encourage-mints,” which are positive notes attached to mints they pass out to students in and out of the classroom.
“It’s a great feeling knowing you have made a difference, even if that was just making someone smile,” Otis said.
Their main goal is to make college an enjoyable experience for everyone. They want to better the experience for those who are suffering from mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, to name a few.
“This club is important because a lot of students suffer from mental illness on campus and the happiness club really focuses on making Winona State an enjoyable environment for everyone,” Hamlett said.
Students who are interested in joining the happiness club should contact the club president, Otis, for meeting times and locations. All students at Winona State should be on the look out over the next few weeks for some uplifting events, which, will be held by the club.