Best Possible Start Week was held in DCU last and run by Welfare Officer Podge Henry.
Events were held throughout the week on both the Glasnevin and St. Pat’s campuses and were in conjunction with SS&D and Clubs and Socs.
The week was set up to promote health, physically and mentally, to give students the best start to the new semester.
Cooking was one of the highlight events of the week with a cooking demo on Monday in St. Pats and a healthy breakfast demo held on Tuesday in Glasnevin to promote healthy eating for students.
The week wasn’t without its problems though according to Henry. Camile Thai pulled out last minute from a scheduled cooking demo and the march against student loans ‘unfortunately overlooked’ some of the Wednesday events.
‘After the success of this week, we hope to run it in the second semester as well’ Henry said ‘We want to get more speakers, booked early and have more back up plans in case something goes wrong again.’
Thursday was labelled Shift Day and the focus was on sexual health awareness. The day started off with a ‘penis rodeo’ in St. Pats. The Johnny’s Got You Covered team handed out free condoms to students on both campuses and free STI checks were also launched.
Henry credits his SU team and Clubs and Socs for their huge help throughout the week and pulling together when ‘some events didn’t go as well to plan.’
In conjunction with the sexual health awareness day, Coppers, Hangar and Dtwo all gave reduced entry to DCU students who showed condoms at the door.
The Law Society and FLAC represented the legal aid aspect of the week with a Know Your Rights – Landlord and Tenants talk on Monday and Know Your Rights – Data Protection talk on Tuesday.
For students looking to join or continue with their fitness routine, free gym access was available all day Wednesday and Friday on both campuses.
The week, which was originally called Give It a Go week last year, had a bigger turn out in Pats this year according to Henry but he saw a well-represented amount of people at all the events held.
Helen O’Neill