By CONNIE MORGAN, staff reporter
A group of students in the Douglass Honors College course titled “What is Happiness” decided to spread what they had learned by starting “Happy Day” at CWU.
The event took place in the SURC yesterday morning and afternoon, ending just before Student Appreciation Day Activities kicked off.
“What is Happiness” is a course taught by Natalie Lupton made up of about 12 students. The class involved a class project that the students were allowed to come up with themselves. The class chose to put on an event promoting happiness called “Happy day.”
Sophomore students BriAnne Pauley and Danielle Brandli were the coordinators for the event which included free prizes, henna tattoos and outdoor activities such as bocce ball.
The event doesn’t correlate with any national holidays but was strategically placed at the end of the quarter when students are stressed out with projects and finals.
Local businesses such as Dominos, Pitta Pit and Royal Sports contributed gift cards which were raffled off for free. A steady stream of students participated in tie-dying, bracelet making, slack lining and henna.
Yessica Martin participated in Happy day and was particularly excited about the henna tattoos.
“I think it’s very fun and it definitely ties us together as a school,” said Marquez.
Tyler Alling, a sophomore molecular biology and ecology major is part of the Douglass Honors College and helped hand out flowers to passersby.
“I think that what this club is doing is great,” Alling said.
Alling plans to join the new happiness club, which will officially start next Fall.
Brandli and Pauley will be in charge of the happiness club, to be titled “students in pursuit of happiness” club. Brandli will serve as president while Pauley will be vice president.
The club hopes to put on events similar to Happy Day at least twice next year. The club will also do activities such as handing out flowers and holding forums on happiness.
This year’s happy day included speech by Dr. Ken Briggs speech on the correlation between positive behavior and happiness at noon, a performance from Jazz Band III, piano performing and a free showing of Patch Adams put on by the Neuroscience club. The Central Washington Artists United club provided art for students.
The goal of the event was to keep everything free. For coordinator Pauley, that was the best part.
“I think it’s just seeing people’s faces when we tell them this is for free,” Pauley said in response to being asked what part of the process made her the most happy.
“All of the planning and putting it together was really hard but it was really fun,” Brandli said.
Those interested in the Students in the Pursuit of Happiness cub should email Danielle Brandli at [email protected]
