Students and residents of the D.C. area joined together on AU’s quad on March 22 for the fifth annual National Eating Disorder Association Walk.
Erin Brown, a senior in the School of International Service, was the team captain for an AU team Better Upsilon, which was the largest team registered for the NEDA walk and the team with the most individual contributions, totaling at $3,116.50, according to the team’s Facebook page.
Brown started the team when she was a sophomore, and since then it has grown, she said.
“I have a personal connection to the NEDA walk, people talked a lot about it, but there wasn’t a solution,” she said. “I wanted an active way to be a part of the solution, while at the same time learning about it.”
The goal each year for the walk is to raise $50,000 for resources to help individuals and their families struggling with eating disorders. This year, the Washington, D.C., NEDA walk held at AU raised a total of $51,182.50, according to their website.
Five years ago the first NEDA Walk was held on AU’s campus because a Wellness Center staff member had close connections with the organization, said walk coordinator Lara Gregorio. Although the walk took place on the National Mall the last two years, this year’s NEDA Walk was brought back to AU’s campus in an effort to get the Wellness Center involved once more, according to Gregorio.
“AU’s Wellness Center is very involved in this mission and they’ve been involved from the beginning,” Gregorio said. “There was staff at the Wellness Center at that time who was really committed to hosting this, and so there’s new staff at the Wellness Center this year but we’re excited to bring them back into the loop and we hope to hold it again here next year.”
Teams from AU, Georgetown, George Washington University and the University of Maryland came out to show support for the event.
The event officially began at 8:30 a.m. Dr. Tom Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health spoke, as well as Gregorio, who is a psychotherapist and eating disorder survivor. A performance from AU’s all-female a cappella group, Pitches Be Trippin’ followed her speech.
“Eating disorders are the third most common chronic mental illness [among adolescents] and has the highest death rate of any other mental illness,” Gregorio said at the event. “Thanks to your support, NEDA is able to continue their life saving support because of you.”
Following the speakers and the performance, a crowd of around 500 people took three laps around the quad, which concluded at 10:45 a.m.
Adrian Nesta, a member of the Better Upsilon team and a junior in SIS, came out to show support for those battling eating disorders, but the location of the walk also contributed to his participation.
“Definitely the convenience of having it on AU’s campus, having it in the community, was really instrumental in doing that,” Nesta said.
