From Feb. 23 to Mar. 1, Robert Morris University’s Delta Phi Epsilon (DPhiE) sorority raised awareness of eating disorders with ANAD Week. ANAD (Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) is a non-profit national organization that is dedicated the prevention and relief of eating disorders that was established in 1976.

Throughout the week, Delta Phi Epsilon planned events to raise awareness of eating disorders and displayed positive thoughts throughout campus. Post-It notes were posted in the men’s and women’s restrooms with body-positive thoughts on them, flyers were spread of statistics about eating disorders, also giving information for help for eating disorders and windows in Nicholson’s Rotunda also displayed sayings such as, “Your body is not wrong, society is,” and other sayings.

Some events that were held were a yoga class held at Yorktown Hall, a nutritionist speaking in Hopwood Hall about living a healthy lifestyle, a “be-you-tiful” fashion show, and a candle light vigil to wrap up the events on Thursday evening.

“The events we held this week had a great turn out, we had students in attendance from groups all over campus,” said Kayla Sample, President of Delta Phi Epsilon. “One thing that we really focused on this year was that we wanted to raise awareness not only about ANAD but that men struggle with eating disorders as well, so I think that fraternities really wanted to support us.”

At some events, there were some who shared their own story of how they have struggled with an eating disorder themselves, or someone they know.

“My favorite event was the fashion show. I think we did a really great job of not only having someone who has struggled with an eating disorder share his story, but I also shared a personal story of mine about my friend who had an eating disorder and how it affected me,” Sample said. “There are so many different aspects surrounding eating disorders and I thought that it was great that we didn’t just focus on people who suffered from them, but also who were affected by eating disorders in other ways as well.”

In the past couple of years, this ANAD Week has had more attention and attendance.

“I’ve noticed that this year we have had a lot more support and people really seemed to take to Twitter to show their appreciation of the events that we are holding. It’s a stressful week for everyone in Delta Phi Epsilon but in the end if we could just educate one person about eating disorder awareness, it could change someone’s life and that’s what we care about the most. We had an outpouring amount of support from the University and even each individual event had a better outcome than previous years,” said Sample.