{"id":719,"date":"2019-04-15T01:07:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T01:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/04\/15\/2019414keefe-center-holds-first-community-health-fair\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:32:14","slug":"2019414keefe-center-holds-first-community-health-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/04\/15\/2019414keefe-center-holds-first-community-health-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Keefe Center holds first community health fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ross Lager<\/p>\n

The Keefe Community Center in Hamden hosted its first free community health fair on Saturday, April 13. <\/p>\n

The event lasted from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. and had over 20 providers present, offering information about health concerns and benefits including, dental care, nutrition, eyesight, food banks and therapy. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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The Keefe Community Center held its first community fair Saturday. (Photo: Ross Lager)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Nancy Juliano, a Hamden resident and member of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer committee, had her Paint Hamden Pink station to spread awareness for breast cancer. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvents like these are very important and should happen more often,\u201d Juliano said. \u201cPeople can learn about breast cancer but I can also spread awareness and grow support for the people and families affected by this disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendees had the chance to learn about and seek possible treatments for diseases such as sickle cell anemia, breast cancer and AIDS.  <\/p>\n

The Quinnipiack Valley Health District, Yale-New Haven Health Hospital and representatives from the Town of Hamden were present, providing information about services for mammograms, diabetes and how to better care for your body. <\/p>\n

Nearby universities such as Quinnipiac University, Yale University, the University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State University each had a station with student representatives available to speak about topics such as AIDS care, cancer and nutrition. <\/p>\n

A food pantry truck was set up for an hour to give away free fresh products such as vegetables, fruit, cold cuts and drinks. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Attendees visit the Connecticut Food Bank truck. (Photo: Ross Lager)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The Community Services Coordinators at the Keefe Center, Y\u2019Isiah Lopes and Anne Marie Karavas, said they believe the first health fair was a success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good turnout,\u201d Karavas said. \u201cThere were about 160 people here today.\u201d <\/p>\n

While attendance numbers are important, Lopes said he is happy to provide services for the community and help any number of people in any way possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we are offering the community something, you can never predict the number,\u201d he said. \u201cWe could have had five people or 500. In the end, I can leave happy saying that we provided information and education for those who may need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopes explained that this event will serve as a pilot program to help the Keefe Center understand how community members will respond to a health fair and how to better serve their needs for the next one.<\/p>\n

He stressed the importance of bringing more awareness to the event as the Keefe Center\u2019s goal is to spread the word as much as possible. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should work with the faith-based organizations like churches and have them help spread this information to their congregations,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Lopes said that he and his team have a lot to learn from this event about ways to improve it in future years. He said he hopes to make next year\u2019s event bigger and better. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to recap from this event, see what we can do better, what we did well and what we can change moving forward,\u201d Lopes said. <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hamden\u2019s Keefe Community Center held its first community health fair on Saturday with over 20 providers present. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2085,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/2085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}