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MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. This Saturday, the two parking lots at Saint Francis AME Zion Church will be filled to capacity with wellness activities and health-screening stations at a fair catering to residents who want to learn more about healthy living.
The Mount Kisco Health and Community Fair at the African Methodist Episcopal church on Hillside Avenue will feature Northern Westchester Hospital nurses who will administer blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose screenings. Afterward, participants will receive a printout of their results to take with them to their next doctors appointment.
Health-fair organizers have also invited a van from Planned Parenthood to provide HIV testing, as well as representatives from Medicare to counsel people at the event.
Church member Sheila Lopez, who organized the fair's vendors, said Medicare will be providing education to seniors. If the seniors have a question on what Medicare does and whats available, theyre prepared to have you sit down and spend some time with them, she said.
In addition, dialysis technicians from the Yorktown Artificial Kidney Center will stop by to give a kidney health-education session.
Church member Ann Rushing, a nurse at an assisted-living facility in Croton, said Lopez asked the dialysis group to share their services with the church, and they were delighted that they could come out to be able to have a broader audience to educate people.
A lot of people that are diabetics do not take care of themselves and can also end up with kidney issues, so its kind of all connected, she added.
Rushing said she has a health ministry at the church and has organized two health fairs a year for the past five or six years.
I guess because I am a nurse, its just certain things that I believe the community should be aware of, she said.
Rushing said she has been approached to organize fairs in other towns such as New Rochelle.
I just try to get as much information out as I can about different subjects, she said.
Vendors at the fair will include church members selling their homemade goodies, specialty foods from The Pampered Chef; cosmetics from Arbonne; jewelry, potpourri and pocketbooks; as well as Tupperware and pots and planters from Delancey Street in Brewster.
The churchs own Reverend Barry Hill will have a table with 5,000 gospel CDs for sale, according to Lopez.
Food at the event will include spare ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, fried chicken and fried fish, and there will be face painting and sand art for the kids to enjoy.
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