One of the best annual events in our community is next
Wednesday’s
”
High on Health,
”
the 2004 Health Faire. Just follow the balloons on the Gavilan
College campus until you find yourself at the Student Health
Center, where you will discover booths set up with everything from
how to do yoga to how to avoid the West Nile Virus.
One of the best annual events in our community is next Wednesday’s “High on Health,” the 2004 Health Faire. Just follow the balloons on the Gavilan College campus until you find yourself at the Student Health Center, where you will discover booths set up with everything from how to do yoga to how to avoid the West Nile Virus.
Sighted people can go around a par course to experience what it would be like to be blind or visually impaired. Coffee drinkers can visit Mike Monroe’s table to learn about Integrity Express and Fair Trade Coffee. There will be free drawings for gift baskets. Most tables offer free samples, buttons, candy or condoms.
When Alice Dufresne-Reyes, Student Health Coordinator and Gavilan College Health Nurse began coordinating the event 11 years ago, she had only 15 agencies who came to set up tables.This year she has 58 confirmed participants from San Benito and Santa Clara Counties so far.
“Our health fair encompasses physical, intellectual, mental, social and spiritual health,” Dufresne-Reyes says. One emphasis is health from a safety point of view, so California Highway Patrol Officers will be there with safety tips and brochures, including child car seat safety information.
Go Kids-Neighborhood Resources will be there, the Adolescent Family Life Program and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. You will be able to pick up information from Project Sentinel-Fair Housing, and even the Registrar of Voters. “Because this is an election year, the connection between voting and health issues is really important,” Dufresne-Reyes explains.
People take advantage of the Faire to get information and advice, including free and anonymous testing for HIV, hepatitis, diabetes and high blood pressure. There are tables set up by South Valley Pregnancy Care Center, the American Lung Association, the American Red Cross, Hepatitis C-Advocacy of Gilroy, COSTCO, Kaiser and the American Cancer Society. There will also be information on low cost insurance.
This year, the Bloom-Roza Chiropractic Office and the Full Lotus Yoga Studio will participate. There will be music on the lawn from 11:30am to 12:30pm. At 12:30pm, a poetry reading will be held.
“Once you start excluding anyone, you’ve lost it,” Dufresne-Reyes says. “Eleven years ago when we started the Faire, a student attended who was planning to commit suicide. Because of the help received at the Faire, that student changed her mind. If we can save even one student each year from whatever pain he or she is suffering, all this is worth it.”
She sums up her philosophy in a quote by Earnest Boyer: “Wellness must be a prerequisite to all else. Students cannot be intellectually proficient if they are physically and psychologically unwell.”
The “High on Health” Health Faire 2004 is Wed., Oct. 6, from 9am to 1pm at Gavilan College’s Student Center. For details, e-mail Alice Dufresne-Reyes at ad************@*****an.edu or call 848-4791.
