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Salem Kroc holds its first health fair.
By Tom Ferrin
The Salem (Ore.) Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center was busy Jan. 7 as the facility held its very first public health fair with more than 450 in attendance.
The venue included health screenings and 35 vendors from a full spectrum of health areas, including fitness, nutrition, cardio health and mental health. The corps enrolled over 540 new members.
Elizabeth Taylor, of Salem’s LifeSource market, offered free organic tangerines and carrots. Another booth offered a free massage from the Oregon School of Massage. Kroc staff and volunteers demonstrated their cardio hip hop and cardio kickboxing classes.
“Everybody is here for the same reason: to better their health,” Ralph Camacho, a Salem Health educator helping with blood pressure screenings, said.
The Army corps members served throughout the fair as volunteers, docents and spiritual advisors. Lt. Misty Raup, assistant corps officer, reported the center should see an additional 20 children involved in afterschool programs and many adult volunteers to help with social service needs. They also led one person to Christ.
“This gave people a chance to visit the Kroc Center and to seek out (health) resources in one stop,” Tom Ferrin, Kroc Center’s associate director of development, said. “This is the first year we’ve done this event, but it looks like it’s going to be an annual one.”
Many vendors commented that this was the best, the most organized and the most attended public fair they had been to. The Oregon Lion’s Club Mobile Health Screening truck performed over 60 health screenings and Walgreens and Mollen Immunization administered over 90 free flu shots throughout the day.
