February 26, 2003
Fair offers healthy connections
Healthy Connections Community Health Fair held at Kingsley Middle School
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
More than 200 people took a stand for health Saturday in the Kingsley Middle School gym during the Healthy Connections Community Health Fair.
With 40 vendors arrayed in tables around the gym, participants could learn about health, nutrition, child development, senior services and how to access a variety of services.
The Kingsley Resource Center hosted the fair and center coordinator Scruffie Crockett declared the event a success. The Kingsley Resource Center is a five-year-old program whose goals include reaching out to the community, providing access to a variety of health-related services locally and guiding residents to area services. The Healthy Connections Community Health Fair was aligned with those goals.
"We've gotten lots of feedback and the phone is ringing today," Crockett said. "The foster grandparent program has had three calls from people wanting to be volunteers and the Way to Grow program has had three to four calls."
Crockett noted that these calls reflected one of the health fair's missions:
"It was really trans-generational and that is what we wanted - to have things for people of all ages," she said. "We wanted to tap into the senior population as well as the babies."
Vendors at the event ranged from a Healthy Futures and the Michigan Women's Commission to the Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion program and Head Start. A variety of medical screenings were also available, including a hearing test, blood typing, blood pressure screening and pulmonary function testing. The Asthma Association and the American Lung Association were on hand to promote clean air, while the Kingsley area Ambulance Service and Fire Department discussed their services.
The Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Department, Way to Grow, Parents as Teachers and the Kingsley Public Library joined forces to sponsor a Child Abduction Awareness table. This table offered attendees the chance to have basic information - including fingerprints, height and a photo - about their child or grandchild put in a folder they could take home.
"It is about time to have it here," said Patty Mueller of Kingsley, who brought her children, her friend's children and a niece to the health fair. "It is more convenient here and I just think it is nicer because all kids should be fingerprinted and photographed."
Sue Neithercut, a volunteer at the Great Lakes Children's Museum, brought along Stuffie, an oversized educational doll that helps teach about the human body. Children stopped by to listen to Stuffie's heart and learn about the various internal organs, such as the heart, lungs, kidneys and liver.
"This is a good venue because a lot of teachers in this area don't realize that we come this far," Neithercut said.