Vaughan Medical Center sponsors Children’s Health Fair

Published 9:35 pm Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Booth by booth, children and their parents spent the afternoon learning how to stay healthy at Vaughan Regional Medical Center’s Children’s Health Fair.

Nearly 20 different healthcare providers and businesses had booths set up with different activities, educational material and all sorts of goodies for children to take home.

“It’s very important for the community to see that there are people that want to be involved in their everyday lives,” said Dr. Patricia Robinson with Pediatric Adolescent Medicine. “We’re here to support the community, and this is one way of showing it.”

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Robinson and her office had a booth set up with face painting, free books, educational material and a book bag raffle. Kids waited in line patiently to get something painted on their face, while others took a quiz to enter a book bag giveaway.

“It’s a part of our existence. It’s a part of our goal to treat the whole patient,” Robinson said. “We believe in being part of the community, and we believe that the only way we can all do better together is to work together, and this is a part of that.”

Across the parking lot, the Dallas County Extension Office had the “House of Germs” set up to teach children about washing their hands.

Before children entered the tent, they put simulated germs on their hands and rubbed them together. Inside, a black light was turned on to show them the glowing germs covering their hands.

Baleigh Williams focuses on answering a quiz question to enter a book bag giveaway Tuesday at Vaughan Regional Medical Center’s Children’s Health Fair.

“They come back out and wash their hands, and go through the proper way of washing their hands using soap,” said Sean Lett, a regional extension agent.

Then they go back inside the tent and see how well they washed their hands and got rid of the germs.

“Some of them have been really happy because some of them really don’t know how to properly wash their hands. They’re like,’ Yay, I got them all off.’ They’re just elated that they did a good job,” Lett said.

While washing their hands is a small task, Lett said it is important to do right and often, especially with school about to start next week.

“It’s just important to keep your hands clean. Sometimes the common cold, the flu and things like that, you can fight by just keeping your hands clean,” he said.

“It’s good that you taught them something they don’t know and that could potentially save their life.”

There were also booths from Wood Orthodontics, Selma Pediatrics, Drug Free Community, the YMCA, Care Ambulance and more.

As children and their parents visited the booths, Vaughan Regional Medical Center CEO David McCormack looked on proud of the turnout.

“We’ve really had a great crowd. I’m really excited about that for the first one,” he said. “This will be the first of many, and hopefully grow a little bit every year. It’s good to see the support that we got from both the business and medical community and from the people.”

McCormack said it is not just the hospital’s job to take care of people when they come through their doors but also to educate people.

“This is what it’s all about,” he said. “We’re a part of this community, and it’s our responsibility to help educate people about healthcare.”