By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— Stress will be a thing of the past after the sixth annual High Noon Stress Buster event at the Pelham Civic Complex Nov. 14.

Dozens of women will gather together and remember a time before they were so focused on their career, motherhood and the challenges of life. This event is a leading empowerment and stress-free living event for women, according to event coordinator Crystal NeVille.

“Stress contributes to the number one killer of women, which is heart disease,” she said. “Instead of taking the medical approach dealing with stress, I took the fun approach.”

After much research, she found that laughter is the best deterrent for stress, so she decided to create a day filled with fun activities for women. Ladies will participate in the signature hula-hoop game, and NeVille said they always crown a hula-hoop queen for the year.

“I say we are bringing out the little girl in them,” she said. “So they are totally excited about it.”

They play a lot of different games together such as Punchinello, a mirroring game that loosens up all the ladies. Along with lunch and door prizes, the ladies will be given pamphlets on stress, learn how at-home spa treatments and hear from motivational speakers.

This year’s theme is DAV Party: Dreams, affirmations and vision. Each attendee will create a vision board and learn about the power of intention, focusing on their goals.

“Afterwards my game plan is to offer women an opportunity to join us on webinars on how to activate the vision board that they actually created,” NeVille said.

Neville said she has dealt with a lot of stress in her life. She is a mother of four grown children, has been married for 28 years and served nine years in the United States Coast Guard.

She explained that she has always been someone who likes to help others, which is why she chose the Coast Guard. NeVille said she felt like she was protecting her own.

“I’ve actually dealt with a whole lot of stress myself in life,” she said. “I didn’t see an outlet for me…I’ve overcome being depressed and feeling really, really horrible. I have changed my mindset a lot to not be so serious-minded and to be more lively and upbeat.”

As High Noon Stress Buster continues to grow, NeVille said she would like to have small quarterly meetings leading up to the large November meeting. She chose November as a kickoff to the stressful holiday season.

In the future, she said she would also like to offer High Noon as a free service for women by gaining a bigger sponsor to help with the event.

Tickets are $25 online and $30 at the door and seating is limited to 60 people. Tickets may be purchased at Highnoon2015.splashthat.com.

“The laughter is definitely (my) favorite part,” NeVille said. “Seeing the women coming up doing the hula-hoop challenge or playing one of our silly games we may play, and seeing them transition of being very poised and before it’s over they are just laughing.”