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Erwin
Mitchell Community Health Fair
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Dalton’s
annual community health fair has a new name and will
be at a new location this year.
The fair, which will be Saturday, Feb. 11, has been
renamed the Erwin Mitchell Community Health Fair after
the former U.S. congressman and state representative
from Dalton who passed away last year.
“Erwin was one of our founding board members, and 2012
is our 20th anniversary. It was really special for us
to be able to honor him this way,” said Nancy Kennedy,
executive director of the Northwest Georgia Healthcare
Partnership, which is sponsoring the event. |
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The fair will be held this
year in the new Mack Gaston Community Center on Fredrick
Street, which opened just a few days ago at the site of
the former Dalton Community Center. The fair has
traditionally been held at the Northwest Georgia Trade and
Convention Center, but Kennedy said the partnership
decided to hold it at the community center because that
building has an area designed for a medical clinic where
the free health screenings can be held and because the
community center is more central to many area residents.
“In the clinic rooms, we’ll have dentists who will be
doing some dental screenings,” Kennedy said. “Dr. (Pablo)
Perez’s office will be doing breast screenings and pap
smears. We have some massages. And the North Georgia
Health District’s Living Bridge Center will be there, and
I believe they’ll be doing some HIV testing.”
All those tests, like the rest of the fair, will be free.
“We know that some people come to the health fair because
they don’t have access to a physician,” Kennedy said.
“They aren’t able to get these annual screenings. And
that’s important, but we will also have an emphasis on
healthy lifestyles this year because the Healthcare
Partnership is trying to create a healthy community. The
Bradley Wellness Center will be giving some Zumba
classes.”
Esther Familia-Cabrera, project director for the
partnership’s Promotoras de Salud program, said those
programs will be conducted in English and Spanish.
“We’ll also have people talking about diet. We’ll have
people talking about the exams people should be having at
each age and passing out literature,” she said. “We want
to make it simple, so when people go back home they can
say ‘This is what my child needs to have. This is what I
need to have. This is what my husband needs to have.’”
The health fair has been organized for 11 years by the
Latin American Community Alliance (ACLA).
“We were very proud to be asked to take the lead on it
this year,” said Kennedy.
There will be workshops on chiropractic, health care
planning, diabetes and immigrant health. The fair will
also host exhibitions by the Alzheimer’s Association,
Hospice Advantage, RossWoods Adult Day Services, the
Whitfield County Health Department, Georgia Mountains
Health and St. Joseph Clinic, among many others.
The Creative Arts Guild, the Bradley Wellness Center and
Mariachi Fuente de Vida, among others, will provide
entertainment. And there will be prizes given out during
the day.
Those who are interested in exhibiting at the health fair
or in becoming a sponsor can contact the partnership at
(706) 272-6663.
“We want anyone who wants to be an exhibitor or to hold a
workshop to sign up. We’d love to have some pharmacies
there. I don’t think we have had any pharmacies sign up
yet,” said Kennedy.
The deadline for signing up as an exhibitor is Feb. 3. But
Kennedy said exhibitors need to sign up in the next week
if they want to make sure they are included in the
program.
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The Erwin Mitchell Community Health Fair will be Saturday,
Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mack Gaston
Community Center, 218 Fredrick St. in Dalton.
For more information, call the Northwest Georgia
Healthcare Partnership at (706) 272-6663 or go to
www.nghp.org.
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