CORPUS CHIRSTI, Texas — The 11th annual City Wide Health Fair took place today on Del Mar's West Campus. The NAACP, LULAC Council No. 1 and Del Mar College joined forces to bring free health care services to the city's west side.
Terry Mills, President of the NAACP says this important event is about educating the public on health care.
"NAACP is the actual founder of this and we invite other community partners to be part of this because we want to give back, making sure people have good education on their bodies and know their numbers. If we don't know all of our numbers we could be dying slowly and not knowing it." Mills said.
"At one time, Corpus Christi had the highest rate of Diabetes so what we want is to make sure you know your numbers. We want to make sure you're eating right. We want to make sure you're exercising."
Dr. Nick Adame, president of LULAC Council No. 1 says the event has seen a lot of growth over the years.
"Every year it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. This year we had over a hundred vendors, wonderful source of information," Adame says "we have door prizes and giveaways donated by each one of our vendors, so even they give back to the community."
These vendors provide free services like wellness checks, vaccinations, blood pressure checks, dental and oral screenings, diabetes screenings, nutrition demonstrations, health education, and tests for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Cyndi Gonzalez attended the Health Fair today and took advantage of some of these services.
"I had my blood pressure checked, had my sugar tested, my fat tested, fat numbers, and got a lot of free stuff, a lot of information. It was really fun." Gonzalez said.
For those who may not have a chance to go see a doctor, it is a great opportunity to talk to professional health experts for free.
"It's awesome if we can help somebody who didn't know that they were either hypertensive or have Diabetes to let them know that their values were up and exceeding the levels where they should be. To give them some direction of what they need to do next." Aaron Uresti, with CVS Pharmacy said.
"The turnout was just fantastic. People are coming and going. They've been flowing in and flowing out like we're giving away lottery tickets... but we're giving away health education." Terry Mills said.
They plan to continue the Health Fair next year at Del Mar College.
