Health fair draws crowd

Published 12:00 am Sunday, May 15, 2005

About 500 residents of Dallas County may have had their lives saved by the Dallas County Fun and Family Health Fair yesterday.

“We found some patients with some super elevated blood pressure,” Dr. Lonnie Felton, of the Central Alabama Community Health Consortium, said. “These are people that have never seen a physician.”

The health fair, put together by the Community Care Network, the Consortium, the Black Belt Action Commission, the Dallas County Health Department and others.

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“Everybody came together,” Ashton Parikh, Director of the Dallas County Health Department said.

Callie Nelson, local Extension Agent, agreed.

“I thought it was a really good cooperative effort to bring people out,” she said.

Dr. Leon Davis, of the Community Care Network, said he hoped it was the first of many. He said it’s planned to make the fair a yearly event, and ultimately, the goal is to provide health care to the indigent and uninsured.

“It’s been a collaborative type effort,” he said.

Dr. Bruce Taylor, of the Black Belt Community Health Service, said the event was about a group of peoplehelping out.

“It’s just a whole lot of folks just trying to do service to the community,” he said.