What better way to de-stress than with a bunch of fun activities while also contributing to a great cause (Relay For Life)? This event was hosted by Devanie which offered an array of activities between Make-Your-Own-Salad Bar, Make-Your-Own-Fruit-Infused-Water, coloring pages, popping bubble wrap, getting head/shoulder massages, hair braiding, and balloon popping.
The first activity was hugging someone for twenty seconds. Did you know that hugging that long produces Oxytocin which helps reduce our stress levels? And no, that does not mean that if you hug three people at the same time, you get three times as much Oxytocin… though that’s exactly what I did. It produced a bunch of laughter, which is actually another destresser (yass!).
Next we broke up into different sections of the room. Every activity had a cost, except bubble wrap popping, and all proceeds went to Relay For Life. I mainly stayed around the massage area where Amy Do, the lovely masseuse for the day, was waiting patiently for her first victim… I mean customer. Little did they know, her experience came from watching professional youtube how-to’s videos the night before. Yikes! First up was Pratima Mangar, our President, and surprisingly enough she enjoyed most of it. Maybe if you follow Pratima on snapchat, you saw her dog filter clip while Amy was massaging her head.
Tiffany Liao, VP of Publications, was next up. Amy, her co-chair, had somehow convinced her to donate the $5 for her services (claiming she’s worth it) while bribing her with one of her infamous stories一if you’ve never heard one of her stories, you should go find her. Now.
Later on, we somehow formed two groups: the colorers and the poppers. And what I mean by that is there was a huge group dedicated to coloring books and a huge group dedicated to popping bubble wrap. We were on the opposite sides of the room too. Since the balloons were there, we decided to play hot potato with balloons. Slowly but surely, we added more balloons to the mix which resulted in a bunch of aggressive hits, balloon bumping, and laughter. I guess the colorers felt left out of all the fun and were compelled to randomly chimed in, “MY COLORING PAGE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!”
There was a silent auction of services too! People had to bid on services whether it were a mentoring session with Pratima, baked goods, make-up application, or intense workout coaching. That’s not all! There was a raffle for coloring books! Congrats to Devanie and Pratima for winning! Again, all proceeds went toward Relay For Life.
Nearing the conclusion of the event, all the balloons that were blown up (thanks Amberley) had to be popped. WIB members raced to pop floating balloons. I think balloon popping stresses people out more than it de-stresses, but whatever works, right? People’s hands were forced tight over their ears to prepare for the pops and squeals that came with it.