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SANTA RITA, GUAM
– Service members, civilians and
families learned about several health subjects during a health fair
at the Charles King Fitness Center (CKFC) on U.S. Naval Base Guam
April 14.
The event was sponsored by U.S. Naval Hospital (USNH) Guam, CKFC,
Navy Exchange Guam, the American Red Cross, Fleet and Family Support
Center (FFSC), and Airman and Family Readiness Center (AFRC). The
sponsors lured attendees to participate and learn by including
learning stations, fitness demonstrations, a food demo and
giveaways.
Luis Martinez, USNH Head of Health Promotion, said the emphasis of
the fair was maintaining a healthy lifestyle that can also prevent
some health issues.
“The family health fair is our effort to get the word out to our
beneficiaries about the importance of health promotion, prevention
and wellness,” he said. “The truth is, the vast majorities of
diseases we suffer from can be prevented. So the emphasis today [is]
on all of those things that we can do as well as some of the things
we shouldn’t be doing is just live better, be healthier, live
longer, be happier.”
USNH Guam Nurse Manager Lt. Serena Darity echoed Martinez’
sentiments and added the need to concentrate on family health as
previous fairs were focused specifically on women’s health.
“We had a women’s health symposium back in October of last year and
realized that after talking about the event that we really needed to
get the rest of the families involved to talk about what keeps
family healthy and talk about preventative measures,” she said.
“It’s important to get the family involved in learning about their
health.”
Events of the day included fitness demonstrations. Darity said the
demonstrations were to encourage new things into patrons’ fitness
routines.
“Maybe we can bring a different routine into their schedule for
eating healthy, and doing things healthy and getting together as a
family and doing healthy things,” she said.
36th Medical Group Airman 1st Class Casey Kosbiel presented the
women’s health booth.
“Everyone seems really interested,” she said. “Everybody knows about
breast exams, but nobody really knows what they’re looking for. We
have models; you can come and feel the [breast] lumps.”
Kosbiel said she enjoyed the atmosphere of the fair.
“Everybody’s really welcoming and fun,” she said. “[Presenters] try
to incorporate games into [presentations] so everybody gets
interested and for the kids, there’s little given away stuff.” |
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