Costume-clad students gathered in the Rec Center Friday, Oct. 10 for two hours of energetic fun.

“Zomba,” a zombie-fied version of the wildly popular Zumba aerobic dance class, took over the Rec Center on campus as the Environmental, Health and Wellness Committee’s kickoff event.

“I wanted to tackle health and wellness and I needed a fun way to do so,” said Shawn Czewski, director of the Environmental, Health and Wellness Committee. “The class is a moderate to high intensity cardio workout, but you don’t even realize it because the class is so much fun.”

“My interest for health and wellness is derived from owning a business that specializes in nutrition and beauty,” Czewski said, making his progression to president of the Environmental, Health and Wellness Committee a no-brainer.

“This is more than an event,” OU Student Congress president Annie Meinberg said. “[Zomba] is an initiative to educate OU students on the importance of staying active and healthy in college.”

 “I dressed as a chili pepper,” Czewski said. “Everyone had amazing costumes and a few students walked away with some fitness bands. The committee also selected two lucky winners for some Nike running shoes.”

Czewski was very pleased with attendance, landing over 50 students for both sessions of the class, augmented by the promise of exciting prizes.

“The goal from the start was to encourage students to continue to pay attention to their well-being outside of the event,” Czewski said.

“I am very proud of [Czewski’s] hard work with the event [and] his diligence … is inspiring us all to gain better habits within OUSC that we then transfer to the rest of the campus community,” Meinberg said.