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As many know, the WFU THRIVE initiative is dedicated to ensuring wellbeing over eight holistic dimensions: Emotional, Social, Intellectual, Physical, Financial, Occupational, Spiritual and Environmental. This unique program officially kicked off in the Fall of 2014 and has already made inroads in campus wellbeing. The THRIVE office has decided to do an annual event for the first day of classes and the first annual one of these was on Tuesday, August 25th. Hu Womack and I, along with Betsy Chapman the Director for Parents Programs, are the coordinators of the Intellectual dimension of THRIVE. We spent the summer in meetings with the other coordinators and with Malika Roman Isler, the campus director of THRIVE and her staff to plan for and execute the event.

Our particular station had brain games and information about campus and community cultural events from the Wake Forest University Theatre, Secrest Artist Series, Museum of Anthropology and Reynolda House as well as information from the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. But the biggest hit at our station was our very own Little Free Library (LFL). ZSR staff and faculty very generously brought used books for us to put out with our LFL and it was wonderful to see people gravitate toward it once they heard the words ‘free books’. All sorts of questions about how a LFL works were asked and we suspect that she will see more business now that more people are aware. Some people even mused about putting one in their own neighborhoods, churches or kids’ schools! It was a VERY hot day but the whole campus turned out and seemed to have a good time all around.  THRIVE ON!