There was an estrogen overload at the Blue Chip Casino’s Stardust Event Center in Michigan City Tuesday afternoon. Women from all over Indiana came to participate in the 11th Annual Women’s Fair. The event is presented every year by IU Health La Porte Hospital as a means for the women of the community to come and receive all sorts of health and wellness information and services. The event was free of charge and open to the public.
Neil Mangus, Director of Marketing for IU Health La Porte Hospital and one of the few brave men that attended the fair was right in the thick of things.
“We want people to be proactive with their health,” Mangus said. “We don’t want to see so many cases of heart disease and have to do so many surgeries for these problems later on in live. This helps to make sure that people take care of their health now so that it’s not tragic later on.”
This must have been a shared throught between many because the crowd was large and more people were arriving at a steady pace.
“It looks like it’s been a pretty good turnout. I’m excited to see it,” Mark Rafalski, the Chief Financial Officer for IU Health La Porte Hospital. “What people are finding now is that prevention is the thing. If you get information in the hands of people who want care or need to seek care out, they get more knowledge and know what to do. So they become smart consumers of health care. When people can figure out what to do with their healthcare they can figure out where to go and hopefully prevent bad outcome and save some money by doing prevention now.”
There were all sorts of things to see and do at the Women’s Fair. There were free health screenings for things like blood pressure, oral cancer, and hearing as well as others. Flu and pneumonia vaccines were available, patrons could donate blood to the Indiana Biobank, there were free Zumba demonstrations at various times throughout the fair, a huge inflatable heart the size of a motor home -it was an interactive and educational heart exhibit provided by AmeriHeart- sat at the entrance to the Women’s Fair that people could walkthrough, and there was free stuff offered everywhere! Over 30 vendors and business set up booths in the large banquet hall, and one of those booths was occupied by United Way of La Porte County.
Kris Pate stood at the booth, wearing a warm smile. Pate is the Executive Director for the United Way of La Porte County.
“I think women are great examples of having giving hearts and being caring people, reaching out a hand to help somebody,“ Pate said. “We love working with women because that’s their natural inclination, and they need to take care of themselves in order to take care of others. You can’t really walk away from society because everywhere you go you’re being impacted by the world around you. So why not get involved and create the world around you and make it a better place?”
I couldn’t have said or written it better myself. The Women's Fair was a success and I know that many will agree with me when I say that I can't wait for next year.
To find out more information about IU Health La Porte Hospital and the Women’s Fair click here! Or check out the Facebook page!