The winter season can feel a bit different to everyone. The start of a new year—and new school semester—can bring a common mix of excitement, curiosity, and anxiety for what’s to come. Stressors like mid-year testing, college applications, and concerns about family or other relationships can make this time especially difficult for students.

To help students feel grounded and build community before their winter break, on December 19, Bryant Minds Matter, new to Bryant High School in Alexandria, Virginia, invited students to decorate cookies. This activity was one of many offered during the school’s bimonthly wellness day.

Our Winter Cookie Decorating activity, written by Thomas Jefferson High School’s TJ Minds Matter, offers an easy way for people to connect and practice a creative coping mechanism while enjoying a delicious treat. Socializing can also be particularly important in colder months to help battle isolation.

Bryant’s wellness days initially started as a one-time event last spring as a way for students to destress before Standards of Learning (SOL) testing. However, staff realized that the school community would benefit from having wellness activities more often. Pipi Harrison, Director of Student Services at Bryant, said that, above all, the wellness days are a chance for students (and staff) to have fun.

“[Bryant staff] know you’re here to learn and get your education, but we also recognize the importance of you just being a young person and just letting off some steam,” she said.

Along with cookie decorating, students and staff could participate in a variety of other activities, like diamond art-making, basketball, karaoke, dancing, or just chatting with peers. Harrison said the wellness days are not only a time for students to unwind, but a chance for them to see Bryant staff members as more than just adults or authority figures in their lives. 

Instead, these relaxed schoolwide environments allow students to see their teachers and mentors as complex people with their own interests. This can help build trust in their smaller school community.

“It’s a time for the students to get to see the staff in a different light as well,” Harrison said. “When we see other sides [of people] or hear people’s stories, then we’re more open and less judgmental.”

Harrison also said that giving students a list of activities to choose from shows that self-care can look different for everyone.

“It’s a reminder to the kids that it doesn’t have to be expensive things that we do. It can just be singing [or] playing basketball,” she said. “Somebody might want to take a bubble bath, and somebody might want to spend 10 minutes in nature, and they’re both okay.”

Harrison said that she first heard about OMM in the earlier years of her career as acounselor at Bryant and is excited to encourage students to create peer-led wellness spaces. At their next wellness day, Bryant Minds Matter plans to use our Because You Matter campaign to encourage participants to practice positive affirmations.💙 As we transition into 2026, Harrison hopes students know that they have the chance to start over however they need and as many times as they need. She also emphasized that, with the full support of the Bryant staff, they are never alone in doing so.

“We’ve seen students come back, renewed and recharged, and we’re hoping to keep that up on our next wellness day,” Harrison said. “I want to remind the students, ‘We’re here for you.’ … We really are in partnership with the students.”

Thank you to Director Harrison and Bryant High School students and staff for demonstrating community-building and community care in action! We look forward to seeing your impact grow.🫂

A special thank you for supporting Our Minds Matter in Fairfax County Public Schools goes to the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia; the County of Fairfax, VA; The J. Willard & Alice S. Marriott Foundation; Kettering Family Foundation; The MATTIE Fund; the McLean Community Foundation; the Potomac Health Foundation; Rosendin Foundation; Van Metre Companies; and our supporter community of mental health champions like you.