The Lethbridge College Kodiaks athletes have been fighting back at mental health awareness by supporting it this week and weekend with their very own Kodiaks “Make Some Noise for Mental Health” event they ran during volleyball and basketball games.

“The Kodiaks ‘Make Some Noise for Mental Health’ is an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference wide initiative and its main focus is to help raise awareness about mental health and making sure students know there are resources available for you to get help,” said social media and marketing lead Jamin Heller.

The colleges main goal is to let students know it is okay to have a mental illness and to want to seek out treatment, and also resources on campus to help out if need be and that they’re not alone.

All week the college has been running events around campus to help get the word out about mental health awareness by letting students know that it is “okay to not be okay”. They also had a few boards for students to write on and make posters that have supportive and uplifting messages on them.

“We have been doing this for a few years now and this year has been pretty successful on getting the word out. Each year we try to build and this year our main focus was on social media and the end game experience,” said Heller.

Mental illness is experienced by one in three Canadians during their lifetime according to Canada.com and many Canadians are affected personally or know friends and family who are affected.

Mental illness usually begins during adolescence and young adulthood however, mental illness can be experienced by people of all age no matter their rank in life.

“I think what the college is doing with supporting people with mental health illness’s is a great thing. It’s such an hard illness to get over and in the end knowing that you’re not alone and that there are people there for you is huge,” said Lethbridge local.