Public Health hosted successful Back-to-School Health Fair

MT. PLEASANT — Henry County Public Health saw a good turnout at their first Back to School Health Fair, Tuesday afternoon.

“We ended up with 85 families and 122 children at the health fair,” HCPH Community Outreach Coordinator Kelly Carr said. “So, the event was very successful!”

According to Carr, 15 minutes before they even opened the doors a line began to form outside Manning Hall.

“Our goal with this was to make it easier for parents to get their kids ready for school ahead of time since the immunizations and screenings sometimes get forgotten until the last minute,” Carr said. “We also wanted to provide the opportunity for parents to learn about community resources and organizations and do this all in a fun environment.”

The event offered free back to school immunizations, lead testing, dental screening, and vision screening along with $25 sports physicals.

Sally Wilson expressed gratitude for the dental screening.

“Dentist are so hard to get into, right now,” Wilson said.

American Eye Care proctored the eye exams which included the traditional distance reading along with color and depth perception checks.

As families arrived at the event, they checked in with volunteers and received paperwork to fill out so they could successfully check off all the boxes on their back-to-school health care list.

While parents filled out paperwork, HCPH prepared to keep kids entertained with coloring pages, origami materials and instructions, snow cones, and games.

These distractions and informational tables did their jobs well as minimal to no crying could be heard throughout the event despite the administration of vaccinations just down the hall.

Kehlani Johnson, a soon-to-be kindergartner from New London, tightly hugged her stuffed llama as she uncertainly made her way up to the 988 informational table to pick out a pop-it.

Many tables and booths from community organizations lined the walls of Manning Hall where parents and kids visited these tables where they learned about things such as drug safety, sun safety, healthy habits, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and local libraries.

Most tables offered fun giveaways like those pop-its in addition to education.

Another soon-to-be Mediapolis Kindergartner Brooklyn Wilson happily took a stress ball from Henry County Public Health as she perused the tables with her mom Sally.

“We heard about the event from Facebook,” Sally said. “My friend is a nurse at New London, and she shared it.”

Between checking off back-to-school health care lists, gathering information, acquiring sweet giveaway items, and spending time together as a family, event organizers and families both appeared to think the event was a success.

Despite the event taking a lot of work from HCPH, Carr said, “This went so well that I think it will become an annual event.”

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com