Every year in August, community health centers celebrate National Health Center Week — this year it is from Sunday, August 9 through Saturday, August 15 with the theme of "Celebrating Our Legacy, Shaping Our Future." Westside Family Health Center (WFHC), a community health center in Santa Monica, will celebrate with a free, community-wide Health Fair. The Health Fair will be on Tuesday, August 11 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., in WFHC's parking lot at 1711 Ocean Park Blvd.in Santa Monica.
The Health Fair will offer fun games while providing relevant health education information. Activities will include healthy eating habit games and tutorials — complete with portion sizes in the form of flexible food models for the kids — nutrition lessons, body mass index (BMI) testing, Covered California information and enrollment help, information on WFHC services and programs, face painting, a photo booth, balloon animals and more. WFHC will also provide healthy snacks and drinks to demonstrate alternatives to sugary or high calorie options and children have the chance to win prizes, such as backpacks with supplies.
While there are many reasons to celebrate health centers, the most important reason is their ability to provide "affordable, high quality, cost effective health care to medically vulnerable and underserved people" according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. "Without community health centers, some of our community's most vulnerable would have nowhere else to go for their health care and health education," said Debra A. Farmer, President/Chief Executive Officer of WFHC. "WFHC's annual Health Fair is an extension of that - it is a fun way to make the community healthier and happier," she continued.
This year WFHC's goal is to increase fair attendance from the surrounding community. Please join WFHC on August 11 and be sure to bring the family.
Westside Family Health Center, founded in 1974, is a nonprofit community health center providing a wide range of low-cost health care services. WFHC serves close to 10,000 low-income and uninsured women, men and children, regardless of one's ability to pay. To learn more about WFHC, visit www.wfhcenter.org.
