The second annual Cupertino Teen Wellness Fair, hosted by the FUHSD Intra District Council and the City of Cupertino, was held at Cupertino Main Street on March 17. Running from noon to 3 p.m., the fair featured 11 booths run by representatives from FUHSD schools, Cupertino’s Parks and Recreation department and the mental health care coordination company Care Solace, which has an ongoing partnership with FUHSD to provide mental health services to students. Lawn games like Giant Jenga and a beanbag toss promoted community engagement.
Recreation leader Robert Kaufman, who organized the city’s portion of the event, gives credit to Associate Superintendent Trudy Gross for coordinating with the city and IDC, as well as inviting Care Solace. He says the fair combines previous city events, like the Summer Jobs Fair, the Volunteer Fair and Bobatino, into a single event due to budget cuts. Still, Kaufman believes the fair retains its value, providing the same opportunities and resources for the community.
“The combined Teen Wellness Fair spawned out of being put in a box,” Kaufman said. “But that doesn’t mean this event is any less because of that. I love that we have multiple aspects, multiple facets of things here to provide for teens. And I don’t think I would want to go back, actually, because I like the idea of this being like a one-stop place for teens to learn about stuff.”
Junior, IDC secretary and Wellness Committee chair Courtney Masli, whose role was to ensure the FUHSD booths ran smoothly, says the event was more successful than the Sunnyvale Teen Wellness Fair held earlier this year. She attributes the success to the favorable location and weather at the Cupertino fair, which attracted more attendees. While Masli particularly enjoyed the attendees’ excitement as they interacted with the lawn games and collected stamps on paper sheets created by the Wellness Committee, she emphasizes the fair’s goal to introduce community members to wellness resources.
“With this event, we really just want to get the word out that there’s a bunch of resources out there to help with mental health,” Masli said. “I know it’s daunting at some parts, and we also want to have more fun in terms of wellness. So we’re trying to find that balance between education as well as having fun.”
Sharing a similar sentiment as Masli, Care Solace lead care manager Georgia Pattison utilized several interactive elements at her Care Solace booth to ease attendees into a discussion about mental health. According to Pattison, giving people the option to play Plinko in exchange for a small prize helped draw them to the booth without overly promoting its mental health aspect, which she acknowledges some teens may be hesitant around.
“We recognize that when you’re trying to talk about mental health care, not necessarily everybody’s excited about that or open to it, and there’s a lot of stigma that comes with it,” Pattison said. “Even if folks don’t start working with the therapist after stopping by here today, we’re about acknowledging that it’s OK to talk about mental health. It’s OK to not be OK. It’s OK to ask for help. That’s always my number one goal. If we can make it like a more common thing to talk about, then I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
Kaufman acknowledges that, especially in Cupertino, teens are often looking for opportunities to prove themselves or show off on their college resumes. However, he adds that many of the opportunities and resources at the Wellness Fair provide important experiential aspects that he hopes teens will recognize and gain.
“I hope there’s experiences that they get that are not just something they can recite in an interview, but something they take with them as they grow and as they get older,” Kaufman said. “This is one of those events where even if only a few teens come, it’s probably worth it because we’re here for the community, right? So being able to connect with anybody from the community is better than connecting with nobody from the community.”
