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Emphasis On Health

Tribune photo by ROBERT BURKE

Sandra Hernandez gets her blood checked by Camy Rivera for cholesterol and diabetes at free health fair hosted by Good Samaritan Mission in Balm on June 18.

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By JOHN CEBALLOS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 24, 2008

BALM - The Good Samaritan Mission's goal is to enhance the spiritual and physical quality of life for farmworkers and others living in poverty in south Hillsborough County.

The mission recently focused on its congregation's physical well-being by hosting an event where people could get routine medical examinations they might not otherwise be able to afford.

Good Samaritan, at 14920 Balm-Wimauma Road, hosted a free health fair June 18.

"I think what they're doing today is a great service because I haven't been able to get myself checked out in at least two years," said Ines Colon, who drove to the fair from Temple Terrace.

This is the 12th year the mission has hosted a free health fair, which had more than 500 people in attendance throughout the day.

"We're very happy with the turnout for the health fair because I think it's a great opportunity for people to get themselves checked out and address their health," said William Cruz, the mission's chief of staff.

The mission has been open since 1984 and, for most of that time, has given away care packages of food every week to as many as 700 people.

Recently, that number is about 300 people visiting the mission Tuesdays to pick up food.

Cruz said the mission moved its food pantry day from Tuesday to Wednesday last week to draw more people to the health fair.

"I wanted to make sure I was still in good health, and I am," said Julio Garcia of Riverview, who underwent a blood pressure test.

In addition to blood pressure examinations, visitors at the fair were able to get blood sugar and cholesterol tests, as well as memory checks for Alzheimer's.

"All of these organizations go from town to town a couple of times a year and put on these events," said Jeannette Palencia, senior community outreach worker for the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. "We're sort of like a traveling circus-health fair."

Services were provided by the Moffitt Cancer Center, Catholic Mobile Medical Services and Catholic Charities Diocese of St. Petersburg. More than 100 volunteers from those organizations participated.

"We try to give people a good variety so we can attract as many people as we can," said Marlene Rivera, coordinator of education and outreach for Moffitt. "It's really a tremendous service to the community."

In addition to helping visitors to the health fair, several organizations took the opportunity to recruit volunteers.

"Right now, we're looking for people to volunteer to become shelter workers more than anything else," said Karen Bird, who was representing the Tampa Bay chapter of the Red Cross. "The Red Cross is dependent on donations from the public and work from volunteers, and we're really looking for people who want to sign up and volunteer to help out in any capacity they can."

Since the attendance at the health fair was almost exclusively made up of Hispanics, Rivera said one of her goals was to emphasize the importance of minority donor registration.

"Donor registration is very low among minorities for blood and, especially, bone marrow samples," Rivera said. "We have programs here today to help educate people, and it's very important to get people signed up to become donors because matches within the same ethnic group are a lot more likely."

The health fair also placed a strong emphasis on women's health issues - additional examinations at the health fair included mammograms for women 40 older and Pap tests for women 18 and older.

"Hispanic women - and men, too - tend to wait until later in life to get themselves tested because they tend to have a lot of other things going on at home," said Venessa Rivera, health educator for Moffitt, who led presentations about breast and cervical cancer during the fair. "Our message is that it's very important for them to take care of themselves first."

The goal of everyone involved is to spread that message to as many people as possible.

"We set up these health fairs in shelters, head start centers, churches and missions like this one," Rivera said. "Our mission is reaching out to all of the underserved areas in our community."

Reporter John Ceballos can be reached at (813) 865-1555 or jceballos@tampatrib.com.

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