The Outdoor Adventure Center at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center gives students opportunities to rent out equipment such as snowshoes, snowboards, cross-country skis and sleds to stay active during the winter season.

SRWC Associate Director Tony Dirth said students should take advantage of renting the equipment to stay healthy when the weather gets cold and the snow hits.

Dirth said the OAC offers a couple different trips that students can take in the winter.

“The OAC offers ski trips to Nordic Mountain and clinics for cross-country [skiing] and snowshoeing every winter,” Dirth said. “This February they are offering a ski trip to the Big Snow Resort in the [Upper Peninsula] which should be a lot of fun.”

UWO student Stacy Ozongwu said she likes the fact that she can rent winter sporting equipment on campus and plans to use it to her advantage.

“I like to ice skate and go sledding during the winter,” Ozongwu said. “So it’s nice to still be able to do that even when I’m not at home.”

Ozongwu said she likes the opportunities to go on trips during the school year provided by the SRWC.

“Giving students the opportunities to go on ski trips and be able to go to places that aren’t just in Oshkosh gives the students more experience and another way to be active and hang out with people who also like skiing or snowshoeing,” Ozongwu said.

UWO student Kyla May said she loves the idea of being able to rent equipment at the SRWC.

“I think it’s a very cool opportunity that we get to have at such a great facility just a walk from our own dorms,” May said. “And it’s a way to make more friends, finding people who have the same interests as you and get to go sledding or snowboarding with them and make plans together.”

Dirth said it’s incredibly important to stay active year-round, and recent initiatives offer that advantage, through both the OAC and Rec Plex. Dirth said he believes that the initiatives allow everyone to stay active during the winter months.

“Student Recreation has a lot of options for students to do that; those who still want to get their exercising in can come to the SRWC all year long,” Dirth said. “Those who want to be active outside can rent equipment or participate in trips or clinics through the OAC.”

Ozongwu said health and wellness is very important because you need to take care of yourself.

“Even being away from home you can still take care of yourself,” Ozongwu said. “The amount of equipment available right on campus and various activities available to students should give them enough of an excuse to work out and have fun.”

Dirth said health and wellness is incredibly important to him.

“I look forward to the change of seasons here in Oshkosh,” Dirth said. “During the summer I do a lot of running, biking and water sports, and then once the snow hits I enjoy cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, and fat-tire biking. I can have fun being active, and the health and wellness comes with it.”

May said health and wellness is important to her because she’s able to live a healthy lifestyle.

“Health and wellness is important to me because if I am able to live a healthy life physically,” May said. “I also live a healthy life mentally and emotionally.