By Jamie McKenzie

Kebaowek’s annual Spring Health Fair is on May 18th, 2023. While the health fair normally happens every year, this years will be the first one since 2019.

Welcome & prizes from a previous Spring Health Fair

“It’s a long time coming, it was a tough two and a half – three years of, you know, dealing with this pandemic and we’re pretty excited to get everybody under one roof again and showcase a little bit of our programs and services we have and some of the partners that we have,” said David McLaren, the Director of Health and Social Services for Kebaowek First Nation.

People can visit the spring health fair from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Kebaowek Community Hall.

The main purpose of the spring health fair is to remind community members of the services that are available within the community. McLaren says it’s also a good time to do some evaluation of the services provided and to see if there is anything that needs to be improved.

“It also gives us a chance to continue to do our screening, which is important, we do blood pressure and blood sugar levels screenings, so people who haven’t had any of these tests done recently, well there’s an opportunity to do so,” said McLaren.

The spring health fair will have various booths for visitors to check out. All of the Kebaowek Health and Wellness Centre departments – like First Line Services and Health Promotion – will be there to answer questions and give information. There will also be invited guests and partners that do work with the health and wellness centre.

Visitors will also have a chance to win some participation prizes by visiting the different booths.

“When you visit the booths, it’s important to get informed, ask questions, and be part of our programming. With your input we’re able to shape our programs accordingly,” said McLaren.

McLaren said this year is also an opportunity to showcase the new Kebaowek Health and Wellness Centre, which will help improve services to the community. Construction on the new health and wellness centre recently began and is expected to take about 18 months to complete.

McLaren also says it’s a good time for people to get informed about emergency preparedness and be prepared to use that knowledge at the health fair.

“One of our super prizes is going to relate around emergency preparedness,” he said.