Just in time to soothe pre-finals stress, Active Minds will offer students De-Stress Fest, a night with positive ways to deal with the strains of student life through free massages, aromatherapy, a chance to take out frustrations on a punching bag and a group scream.
The event will take place from 7 to 10 p.m. Dec. 3 in Friends Hall rooms 201, 202 and 203 and is free and open to the public.
Junior Brittany Bookman, event planner for Active Minds, said students often do not deal with stress in a healthy way at finals time.
“As a mental health advocacy group on campus, we really are trying to give [students] some alternative, positive ways to de-stress,” she said.
The event will use three rooms to accommodate three approaches to relieving stress.
One of the rooms will be called the “Relaxation Room” where students will be able to enjoy free, professional massages, hypnotisms by a faculty member, aromatherapy and other activities set to calm, soothing music.
In the “Aggression Room” students will take out frustrations in a more active way through activities such as popping balloons, beating punching bags and writing stressful thoughts on a piece of paper and shredding them.
“The Neutral Room” will have video games, food, stress balls and fun music that seeks to provide good company in a fun environment.
Junior Joseph Fraioli, co-president of the group, said the event was separated into three different rooms to give everyone a chance to relieve stress in a way they feel comfortable with.
He said activities like these are important for everyone on campus to participate in.
“Everyone has mental health, regardless of whether you have an illness,” he said. “It’s important to keep yourself healthy.”
LeBron Rankins, psychologist for the college and adviser for the group, said everyone, including students, suffers from stress for a number of reasons including transitions in life, relationship problems and a lack of sleep.
Senior Caitlin Bango, the group’s other co-president, said the days approaching finals are especially stressful and there are not enough campus events to help students cope.
“It will be really good for everyone before finals time to be able to de-stress and hopefully learn some techniques ... they can use in the future,” she said.
Bango said students neglect their mental health because it is something that is not seen as a major issue on campus.
“People always talk about taking care of themselves physically, like exercising and eating right, but they don’t really talk about what they need to do for their mental health,” she said.
Fraioli said he also hopes the event will inform the campus of Active Minds’ initiatives. He said the event aims to help people understand the importance of taking care of their mental health.
“[We hope students] come out to realize that your mental health is more important than any test that you could ever take,” he said. “And that if you are not taking care of your mental health, then you won’t be healthy in general.”
The main goal of Active Minds is to inform the student body of health issues and the support that exists to help deal with them. Rankins said the organization is doing the college community a great service.
“Active Minds has a voice for the students who may not be able to have a voice for themselves,” he said. “In so doing the stigma about mental health is minimized and increases the likeliness that others will get help.”

To get involved with Active Minds, contact Joseph Fraioli at jfraiol1@ithaca.edu.