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.
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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