Students organize health event to benefit BYU-Idaho and community
- posted: 10 July 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
Rexburg community members gathered in Smith Park for the Madison Memorial Hospital health fair on July 6. The fair, entitled “Health Yourself,” was organized by four BYU-Idaho students and sponsored by the hospital.
Eric Jeide, a senior from Powell, Wyo., headed the creation of the event, along with three fellow students from the capstone Communication course at BYU-I.
One of the course requirements is to organize an event to benefit the school and the community.
The purpose of the assignment is to draw on the specific training of several students in the Communication program and use their expertise to create an event.
“We’ve been able to use skills from all of the courses we’ve taken, and it’s great to see it all come together,” said Emily McKeen, a senior from Milton, Wash., and an organizer of the event.
Not only was it a testing ground for the Communication students’ skills, but the health fair was an opportunity for Madison Memorial Hospital and local health businesses to create awareness in the community.
“We wanted to do this to help educate the community about the health resources available in the hospital as well as in the town,” said Allison Foulk, the public relations specialist at the hospital. Foulk helped the BYU-I students organize the health fair.
The hospital set up tables at the fair to offer information about topics such as maternity services, diabetes and physical therapy.
Daniel Ormsby, a senior from Odessa, Texas, and an organizer of the event, manned a table on heart health and CPR.
As for community health resources, Officer Troy Dameron of the Rexburg Police Department provided information on drug awareness, bicycle safety, identity theft and child safety seats. Great Harvest Bread Co. provided free slices of bread.
Xocai offered samples of their healthy chocolate, and T’n’T Health and Beauty Retreat set up a massage table.
“We were able to get such a variety of people interested. It’s been great to see people taking time out of their day to learn about health,” said Ashley Condie, a senior from Chapel Hill, N.C., and an organizer of the event.
The health fair also included a children’s inflatable castle, fresh fruits and vegetables and music provided by KLCE Classy 97."It’s been great to see people taking time out of their day to learn about health.”
Several raffles were also held to give away tickets to the new Harry Potter movie and gift cards to Gandolfo’s Deli, Mike’s Music and Broulim’s.
“Health has always seemed like such a boring thing, and a lot of people lose motivation. We tried to bring in some elements of regular fairs, such as music and the inflatable castle, to show people that health is something you have to be proactive about, and it can be fun,” Jeide said. 
