PEORIA MAGAZINE January 2023

T W E N T Y S O M E T H I N G

NEW IN CAMPUS FASHION College students become mental health advocates through the Green Bandana Project

BY NICK VLAHOS

I n a few months, Olivia Wright is to graduate from the University of Iowa. The senior fromMetamora is to take with her a degree in finance and a certificate in event planning. Wright also is likely to take away a green bandana. On a personal level, that might be just as important as the sheepskin. The 21-year-old Wright is vice president of the University of Iowa Green Bandana Project. The group’s goal is to increase mental-health awareness on the Iowa City campus. Wright said she became involved

with Green Bandana as a class project in the university’s Event Management Program. But earlier this year, the class project became a full-fledged on campus club, with the imprimatur of the Iowa administration and the ability to raise funds. Green Bandana has grown to bemore than just a classroom assignment for Wright, too. “I think that there’s a lot of stigma around mental health, and I want to help lower that stigma and help people feel included,” she said. “I think it’s a change that needs to happen on college

campuses, where there’s somuch stress with school and trying to balance everything.” The Green Bandana Project began in 2016 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The founder, then-freshman Conlin Bass, had lost an uncle and a close friend to suicide and was looking for a way to normalize the search for mental health assistance. Bass found it by using a simple piece of cloth. Students who have a lime-green bandana tied to their backpacks are the linchpins of the project. The bandana

60 JANUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE