Mary Talboys has been with the Family Health Fair since it started 16 years ago.
But this year, the health fair planners decided to make a change to the main Saturday event from a kid’s fair to one for the whole family, as good health is an issue for everyone.
The “Be Well Utah’ health fair, which was held on the north lawn of the Huntsman Center, was part of health week at the U health clinics across the valley to promote good health habits in the community.
There were only about 100 people in attendance at the first Family Health Fair, but Saturday drew a crowd of about 5,000 people.
“I thought it was pretty well put together,” said Shawn Wickard of East Millcreek, a man in a wheelchair who suffers a rare spinal disease. He said he went to the fair for information on different health issues. “It was nice to talk to people who had the information that I was looking for.”
The fair went from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and included booths such as healthy cooking demonstrations, opportunities to ask doctors and pharmacists questions and a medication disposal station, where the Salt Lake City Police Department collected prescription drugs that shouldn’t be thrown away or flushed down the toilet.
U Health Care officials and volunteers from various divisions of the U Health Care system and Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah also set up booths for their individual organizations, such as a booth for the Clinical Neurosciences Center and the Moran Eye Center.
Stacy McNicol, outreach coordinator for the cardiovascular center, took some health tests from her booth to three other clinics and said they were so successful that five minutes after the fair opened, her Saturday schedule was completely full.
Mike MangumShawn Wickard, the Orange Embrace Captain and an employee at Home Depot, gets interviewed by BYU Television reporters about his struggles with Lupus and Transverse Myelitis on Saturday at Be Well Utah.