Students at Bear River are wondering what the new “secret room” is on campus.

Not many people are familiar with the new Wellness Center on campus. It was brought to the school as a new addition over summer break, replacing the old computer lab in room A131.

Library Technician Josie Andrews explained what the new Wellness Center is and what it’s used for.

“It’s a space for meditation,” Ms. Andrews said. “They have yoga mats so you can bring classes in there, and there’s some beautiful pictures on the walls. It’s a really nice, relaxing space to go and get some calm.”

Ms. Andrews also described what the purpose is of the Wellness Center.

“It’s really just to help support students that maybe just need a place to center themselves or a whole classroom,” she said. “A lot of times classes go in there and then you can do a brief meditation or a yoga session or just some self-care.”

Counselor Cindy Henry Grimm had the idea of having this new addition to the campus.

“I had submitted the proposal, but some of us had gone to look at one in Truckee,” she said. “I think it’s been around a long time, the ideas, but it’s just coming to conceptualization now. I think it’s a team effort. We have a new team that’s up at the district office that I’m part of that we’re trying to set up these on all campuses.”

Some students on campus are very familiar with the new addition and think it’s a great room to have.

Senior Camden Criesco had his opinion on what it adds to the school.

“I think it adds a place that people can go to if they just need to relax, or if they just need somebody to talk to or just hang out,” Criesco said. “I think it adds chemistry because there’s not really as much of an organized place like that. Before the Wellness Center, I guess the library is sorta like that but it’s still more public.”

Senior Bella Batula also had some positive opinions on what she likes about the Wellness Center.

“I love it, I use it for the Lion’s Club meeting, it’s a great place and I love that they remodeled it,” she said. “It’s very calming and clean and it’s just somewhere you can go to relax.”

There are also some not so positive opinions on the Wellness Center.

Brenna Dickson, a junior, implied that maybe the extra space that the school is using for that room isn’t necessary.

“I think it’s really good, but they are using a lot of space,” Dickson said. “They could be doing a lot more with the space, and they don’t have that much stuff in there. They could get more donations for it.”

At this point, the Wellness Center isn’t open full time for everybody. The counselors are working on getting an assistant worker to be in there full time.

“Right now we’re doing groups and other set times for things,” Grimm said. “Eventually (we will) get a full time person to staff it. A therapist or a counselor (so) that it would be open all the time so students could drop in as needed.”