With a strong turnout of over 100 people, over a dozen interactive health stations and enough free give-a-ways to make any needy college student happy, this year’s Health Fair provided more interesting information in three hours than many students witness in an entire semester.
As the different stations and setups formed a perfect circle around the court, a live yoga session took place in the middle, giving the fair a very dedicated feel.
Among the different setups, the first station to greet students entering the fair was the NovaCare booth. NovaCare is a physical therapy corporation that also offers a wide variety of different healthcare services. A recent Cabrini graduate, Katie Bartosik, the athletic trainer at Downingtown High School, went on to say “We also offer a unique work strategy program that allows us to go out and offer things such as proper lifting techniques, posture, and many other services right on the job site.” NovaCare also works with many different collegiate and professional teams throughout the United States.
The palm reading station proved very popular with its long lines of students eager to glimpse into their futures. Although many shrug to palm readings and their accuracy, the art actually goes back hundreds of years..
This year’s Health Fair also included blood pressure testing and information about blood pressure relevance to health issues. Among a few exercise stations, students did several activities such as step-ups, muscular strength and endurance testing, and even a running test. The endurance station was brought to us by the hardworking students of ESH470, a class dedicated to testing and exercise.
Among the infatuating yet gross activities to take part in at the fair, the underline skin station, brought to us by Blue Cross, was the most revealing. This station included a Dermascan screening that had this journalist scared to look back in the mirror. This scan shows damaged skin, even freckles that are under your skin, using a special UV bulb, and the results can be far from pretty.
As many health fair participants continued to work up a hunger at the lunch-hour festivities, some satisfied their hunger pangs with many different kinds of health food provided by Kimberton Whole Foods.
The Kimberton Whole Food station offered a wide variety of health foods for students to sample. Kimberton Whole foods are a family run business that currently offers two local locations. Of the many different types of food being offered, the Cheesy Beer Smear dip they had out for samples was the favorite, providing a healthy twist far and beyond the usual chips and dip.
When it came to free gifts, the leader of the pack was local dentist Ronald Zarfarian. His station gave out the best in dental supplies such as Oral B toothbrushes, floss, mouthwash and toothpaste. This station featured a great before and after shot taken directly from his customer’s files that beat any late night teeth-whitening infomercial.
Cabrini College Counseling services featured an alcohol awareness station that took an alcohol survey in support of National Alcohol Awareness Month. The test featured questions varying from how often do you have 4 or more drinks, to how often you feel remorse after drinking. After taking the test the results were than tallied up. Based on the results of this test students were then given a brief review. This active screening had every student that participated thinking a little bit more about his or her drinking, and how it could potentially affect themselves and those around them.
Yoga guru Linda Shikitino, Cabrini Zen Yoga teacher, featured her own yoga station, and active yoga class throughout the fair. Shikitino, who happens to be producing her own yoga video by popular demand, stressed only one thing to health fair attendees, simply put, “Just take a moment, and breathe.”
This year’s health fair was more fun than many could have anticipated. Christa Angeloni, senior religious studies major, attributed much of the success of the fair to the number of attendees, ” So many people showed up.” Angeloni went on to say ” People really got a lot out of every stand they went to, and actually had a lot of fun doing it.”
