Boats, bikes and boulders — Students get educated at Health and Rec Fair

Bike to the next town. Take a boat out on a lake. Climb a rock.

University of Idaho students learned to get outdoors, get fit and stay healthy at the Health and Rec Fair at the UI Student Recreation Center (SRC) Wednesday.

Vandal Health Education and SRC put on the event, which featured information stands from a variety of organizations from the university and the community.

Chelsea Kucera, executive director of the Latah Trail Foundation, said the Latah Trail, which runs 11 miles along, is a historic railbed from Moscow to Troy.

“We’re connecting our rural communities,” Kucera said. “The trail provides an opportunity for students who find hiking around the Palouse too adventurous.”

The trail is fit for motorless vehicles such as bicycles and has ADA accessible bathrooms and is a shallow enough slope that it’s fit for even wheelchairs, Kucera said.

The fair also offered free rock climbing and advertised the exercise equipment of the center. Recreation available to students is not limited to land, however.

Christine Berven, member of the Lewis-Clark Sailing Association and associate professor of physics at UI, said the association is another option for students to get outdoors.

“We’re a low-key group of sailing enthusiasts,” Berven said.  “Unfortunately, we don’t have many students.”

Berven said the association organizes races on lakes Coeur d’Alene and Pend Oreille.

“One of the reasons I like my boat is to share it with others,” Berven said. “We’re normally very happy to take people out on our boats.”

Berven said boating season is about over, but that it is an opportunity for students who stay in the area in the summer.

UI junior Nestor Madrigal said he came to the fair to get a flu shot and look around.

“I was looking for health advice about fitness and eating healthy,” Madrigal said. “I found that here.”

James Uhlenkott said he liked the variety of stands. Organizations present included Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse, Vandal Health Education, American Red Cross, the Counseling and Testing Center and the Alcohol and Other Drugs program. Parking and Transportation Services provided information on alternative transportation and offered free bicycle registration.

“I learned a lot about nutrition — like how much sugar is in soda and about HIV,” Uhlenkott said.

Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected]

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