Hospital's first annual health fair draws 400
By Jesse Phelps

The Ojai Valley Community Hospital hosted its first annual health fair on Saturday at St. Thomas Aquinas Church from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event served as a forum for health and fitness services in the Ojai Valley, everything from child care to healthy eating and fitness training to elder care and pet resuscitation.

The event attracted 65 vendors, featuring a number of mobile units including an emergency response team, Mercy Air, demonstrating a helicopter landing. Other participants were as varied as Help of Ojai, Rainbow Bridge, the Alzheimer's Association, The Gables, Ojai Valley Athletic Club and two resources for pregnant women.

The Ojai Birth Resource & Family Center came into being just after the hospital closed its maternity ward several years ago and supports women who are pregnant or who have just had a child. The Ojai Pregnancy Center is another group providing pre-natal counseling, pregnancy tests and a range of services for the mother-to-be.

Hospital staff estimates that more than 400 people showed up to learn what kind of resources Ojai can offer to keep its citizens healthy and participate in the four seminars hosted at the event.

At one seminar, Dr. Clarence Sterling showed people how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation on their pets. Another demonstrated distster preparedness. Long-term care and aromatherapy were the subjects of final two seminars for the day.

Mike Ellingson, director of community relations and development for the hospital, said the fair could help coalesce diverse health resources available to the valley's citizens.

"We recognized in the valley that a lot of organizations do kind of their own little health fair every year and we really felt that it would be much more powerful if everybody kind of came together under one umbrella and did an annual health fair that truly represented the community and brought everybody together," he said.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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