Cedar Creek Health Fair
Digg This!Last Saturday, March 14th, my co-worker Dino and I staffed the FPHS booth at the Aspirus Wausau Hospital Health Fair at the Cedar Creek Mall. This is a yearly event that FPHS has participated in for over 20 years. We have condoms to give away at our booths and in years past sometimes some people objected to that.
Aspirus Wausau Hospital staunchly stood up for FPHS and our free condoms. They have been very supportive of FPHS and continue to invite us to participate in their health fair. Over the years, as more of the hospital services were showcased at the health fairs, they eliminated some other health services providers from their health fair. They refused to eliminate FPHS. We are very grateful for the opportunity to talk about our services to the people who attend the health fair.
This year over 1400 people attended the Health Fair. FPHS had condoms to give away and condom key chains. We had approximately 500 people stop at our booth to talk. People who usually might not have stopped did stop this year. They asked us how we were holding up due to the picketers that have been demonstrating outside of the Wausau FPHS clinic since Ash Wednesday. We said we were doing okay. They asked us if we thought that people were not coming in for services since the picketers were there. We said we still have people coming in for WIC and for reproductive health services and haven’t really seen a decrease in visits. Of course, we don’t know if there are people who aren’t coming in, because they aren’t coming in. The Bridge Community Clinic told us in February that if we have someone who needs services and is too fragile to face walking in here in front of picketers, that they would see those clients for us. We thanked them for offering back-up for our clients. We are grateful for their support.
The next thing that visitors to the booth at the Health Fair did was voice their support for our services and stated their disagreement with the people picketing at our birth control clinic. “Picketing against abortion is one thing, but you guys prevent abortions by preventing unintended pregnancies. You don’t do abortions. Thank you for all you do. Keep up the good work.”
When Dino came on duty to staff the booth at the Health Fair, I went to get some lunch. In the hour I was gone, he said he had 50 people come up to him and say the same things they’d been saying to me all morning. He said it was so great to hear their support. “It was so positive. It really helped me recognize the support FPHS has out in the community.”
It was a positive event with very good turnout and we loved meeting the people and talking about FPHS.
