The Okotoks Oilers hosted their second annual game for Mental Health on February 13th.

In a partnership between the Okotoks Oilers, the Foothills School Division, and Minds Matter, they are wanting to have conversations about mental health.

The game started at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, so that students from the Foothills School Division were able to attend.

"So, last year, the Oilers, they wanted to do something around Mental Health awareness for their team. They approached our school division and asked if we would want to partner with them," explains Teresa Ferrario, who is the Manager of Minds Matter with the Foothills School Division. "We absolutely wanted to. So, we did the first game last year and did a focus around mental health awareness. It was so successful, and we had such amazing feedback, that we talked about, 'Oh we should do this again next year!'"

While they were planning for the event this year, they decided to make this an ongoing annual event.

"Really, the idea is to continuously talk about mental health and how important it is to keep the conversation open," explains Wellness Coach with Minds Matter. "So, that has been something that we in our daily jobs do, but this is something to bring to the community and have all of our students here present is a really great opportunity."

So, during the game, the members of Mind Matters spoke during the game's intermissions about mental health.

This year, roughly 900 students from ten schools throughout the Foothills School Division were in attendance.
 

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