Wallace Community College Selma’s campus isn’t usually covered with people on weekends, but it was Saturday for the third annual Get Fit Selma Health and Wellness Fair.

Hundreds turned out to take part in the event sponsored by Taylor Internal Medicine, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the McRae Gaines Learning Center.

“The mission is to expose people to healthier ways of living,” said Stephanie Hamm, president of the board of directors for the learning center and chair of Get Fit Selma. “Let’s make Selma first in health and wellness.”

Hamm said the festival started three years ago to raise awareness for diseases that have a big impact on residents in Selma, Dallas County and the rest of the Black Belt Region.

“From Dr. Bruce Taylor’s perspective, who founded this whole effort, this whole campaign is because of Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension and obesity,” Hamm said. “They are such huge problems in the Black Belt.”

The festival offered a little bit of everything for everyone.

The day stayed off with a 5K and one-mile fun run that was followed by full schedule of health screenings and more.

Hundreds of volunteers from organizations in Selma and Dallas County took time to offer free health screenings.
“We’ve worked really hard making sure everyone gets checked out,” Hamm said.

“Everybody wants to go right past that and straight into the vendor fair because they have great information, giveaways and door prizes.”

Jackie Moultrie, a volunteer with Rho Eta Chapter of Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority, was one of the volunteers helping check blood pressure.

“We’ve had several people who had extremely high blood pressure, and what we did was refer them over to one of the other vendors, which is UAB Family Medicine, in order to discuss with them so they can be counseled on their hypertension,” Moultrie said.

Moultrie said having the festival is beneficial to residents in the Black Belt because some people don’t always get regular check ups.

“I think it is real important that we have community events like this because the ones who would normally not be screened for health issues are actually participating and  having their blood pressure, their heart rate and everything that needs to be checked on a regular basis,” Moultrie said. “A lot of people don’t go to the doctor regularly, so this is a good way to assist them.”

The event was eye opening to some people that attended.

“I got a lot of information so I can tell people where to go. I can help other people in the neighborhood,” said Crystal Gore.