Big Sur Health Center's Annual Health Fair was a huge success!

The recent Big Sur Health Fair, held on Oct. 11th, provided exams, testing, flu vaccines, education, counseling and good food to over 200 members of the Big Sur community! It’s always gratifying to see how many Big Sur and Peninsula residents help every year to make our Health Fair a reality.

Every year, Tracy Chesbrough climbs trees to put up our highway banner and take it down! Hats off this year to Seth Parker who delivered an enormous load of chips for ground cover. Ray Sanborn, Patte Kronlund and Hal Latta spent their early morning hours spreading the chips and setting up while Grady Cook cut back over hanging branches. Tom Zobel donated the seasonal décor of hay bales, pumpkins and corn stalks! And Ken Daughters trucked Tom’s decorations to us (which meant he hefted many of those bales himself!). Carlos Vasquez and his Post Ranch crew once again picked up, delivered and returned tables and chairs from the Grange, umbrellas from River Inn and tents from the Hawthornes. Additional helpers this year included Frank Pinney, Hal Latta, Bob Sayre, Dick Ravich and Dave Smiley. Martha Karstens and members of the Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade, Hubbs, Christian and Alberto, coordinated parking with some added help from Dave Smiley and a long shift from Hal Latta.

Community members also offered their expertise: Lynda Sayre provided “Healing Touch” all afternoon while Jules Cochrane offered chair massage. Jessica Koning explained about the health effects of certain types of plastic use and Sequoia Chappellet-Zamora educated us about the nutritional importance of breast milk. Penha Simon spent the day whipping up healthy, tasty fruit smoothies and veggie blends and also supplied information about yummy sugar substitutes! A healthy snacks table was organized by Barbara Ray-Daughters. Thank you for the food preparation and staffing of the snack table: Clovis, LaVerne, Celia, Kathy Pinney and Health Center Directors Avril, Jo-Ann and Jeanette. Veronica Bustamante and her youthful crew were a big help all day long getting our visitors to sign in, but not before they helped with set up and food prep. The raffle table had its own location this year thanks to Eby Wold, Sam Goldeen, Bill Burleigh and Penny Vieregge. And John Alvord once again handled the sign ins at the blood mobile. Before we leave mention of our local support, we must acknowledge Esalen’s donation of kale for our veggie blends, Big Sur Bakery for supplying bread for the volunteer’s lunch (and kudos to Celia for a terrific salad) and the Chappellets for the generous contribution of goat cheese and raisins; finally, thank you Ripplewood for donating the ice that kept everything fresh! And remember when you go to town that we received donations from Whole Foods, Earthbound Farms, Trader Joes, Safeway and Costco - tell them how much you appreciate their help next time you shop.

Every year we depend on Ellen Watson, CHOMP’s Outreach Coordinator to organize CHOMP staff, the backbone of our annual Health Fair. They bring us blood sugar and cholesterol testing, assessment of cardiovascular disease, asthma screening, cancer prevention and stroke education; we’re also indebted to them for the lab and the bloodmobile. And Mr. Bud Westcott, from the Lions Club comes down with vision testing while Shirley Smith, RDH and Veronika Vasquez, DDS provide dental screening. Sue Malinowski set up her acupuncture booth again for us. This year AMR brought down an ambulance to show us a simple, updated CPR.

We must thank the Big Sur Health Center’s own staff : Sharen, Fela, Maria, Dr. Benda, Janyce and her helper this year, Anna Linden, RN. All day long they were doing in-take, giving flu shots, and doing blood pressure checks.

The Board of Directors for the Big Sur Health Center extends a very big thank you to all of the above for making the Health Fair, once again, such a success! We look forward to seeing you next year