Red Lake High School Hosts Student Health Fair for 1st Time Since COVID-19

The Red Lake Student Health Fair made its way back to Red Lake High School on Friday after the COVID-19 pandemic put the event on pause for the last few years. Red Lake Nation wants to educate students on mental health, as well as bring awareness to the many different resources that can help students and their well-being.

“It takes a lot to ask for help, especially if you grow up in this community,” said Jon Roberts, the Student Health Fair’s MC. “I have grown up here my whole life, just about my whole life, and it’s encouraging to see a lot of the programs and social services share what they have to offer.”

Organizers of the health fair want to highlight the health services that are offered within the community.

“[The purpose] is to educate and give our teens more knowledge on different things that may help them throughout their life,” said Lisa Beaulieu, Red Lake Suicide Prevention Coordinator.

Some students didn’t even realize how many options there are already.

“I actually didn’t [know] it myself, so it’s kind of cool seeing all these tables out,” said Amya, a 12th grader at Red Lake High School.

“We want to give our students in our Red Lake Nation community resources, and they can see that in this Native community, there are people who really care about us and care about them,” explained Victoria Irons-Graves, Red Lake Student Support Professional.

Resources like Planned Parenthood from outside of the reservation also attended the health fair to answer any questions students had.

“I just hope that they’re able to get some resources, get some information, have some conversations,” said Anna Goldentooth, Planned Parenthood’s Indigenous Initiatives Manager. “Young people do want to have the conversations around sex and sexuality, and so we try to make it engaging and fun.”

Red Lake Nation not only sees how this health fair opens students up to different resources, but also how it can bring awareness to potential job opportunities.

“We want more of our students to look at careers,” said Red Lake Tribal Health Director Oran Beaulieu. “To be a doctor, to be a nurse, to be a pharmacist, any type of area that we can get more of our young children to look at careers that are going to be beneficial to them and also beneficial to the Red Lake Nation.”

And for the first Student Health Fair since COVID-19, organizers wanted to put an emphasis on mentorship.

“In the past, like long ago in a tribal community, we had a lot of mentoring that went on throughout the community for our children and our young people,” added Irons-Graves. “We want that thread of mentorship and leadership to continue, to help them grow to be really strong adults and be able to reach out when they need help.”

The Red Lake Student Health Fair was put together by Red Lake Comprehensive Health Services.