The newly founded Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing will sponsor its first health fair on campus, May 1.

Dr. Louis Rubino, the director for the institute said the Health and Wellbeing Fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the north side of the campus in parking lots E6 and D6.
For community members who may not be familiar with the parking lots, the address is 18111 Nordhoff Street with Reseda Boulevard and Lindley Avenue as the cross streets, he said.

This free event is open to CSUN students as well as the residents of the San Fernando Valley, Rubino said. There will be a number of on-campus and off-campus organizations, providing health services.

The CSUN centers participating are the Language Speech and Hearing Center, the Center of Achievement, CSUN Music Therapy Wellness Clinic, the Klotz Student Health Center, the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics and the Valley Trauma Center, Rubino said.

Many local community centers such as 24-Hour Fitness, Snow Orthodontics, Make-A-Wish-Foundation of Greater LA,  and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, are just a few that will be there to help raise and support awareness on healthy living, Rubino said.

Kelly Friedland, a graduate student mastering in public health and the leader of this event organized the fair along with two professors and students from two classes, Health Leadership, HSCI 413 and Recreation and Tourism Management, RTM 202, Rubino said.

Professor Frankie Augustin is one of the involved professors who teach the health leadership course and Friedand said the fair’s main goal is to raise awareness of the CSUN Centers.

“That’s something we want to do so everybody has that certain level of awareness,” Augustin said. People will know there are services on this campus that they can access.”

Designated times will be set aside for a tour of three of the CSUN centers, said Rubino and Augustin. It will include a tour of the Center of Achievement, Language Speech and Hearing Center and CSUN’s Family Resource Center.

“For those who don’t have the ability to walk, there will be Mobility Works, which is an organization that prepares automobiles for people who are physically challenged,” Augustin said. “They’ve donated two vans for the event. One to showcase, so people can see what the vans look like but also to transport people back and forth.”

There will be booths and a demonstration stage where some of the organizations will demonstrate health services, Augustin said.

She said the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics will perform food demonstrations on healthy cooking and eating.

Augustin said there will be free food and a chance to win great gifts. The food served will be organic and healthy such as fruits, vegetables and smoothies.

The great health incentives that will be given away are gift cards from Sam’s Club, Ralph’s, and a couple of restaurants such as the Olive Garden, Augustin said. Two family packs, for a family of six to the Brunswick Matador Bowling will also be given away. Augustin said that will be the largest gift given away, valued at $50 to $60.

She said 24-Hour Fitness will be there to promote the grand opening of their new facility located across the street from the Northridge Mall. So they will be there doing many demonstrations for some of the classes they offer and they also will be giving away passes, Augustin said.

Florence Hawkins, a resident of the San Fernando Valley and a mother of two young boys said she likes the idea of the fair.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea, because healthy living is something that everyone really needs to know and practice in their everyday lives, in order to live a long healthy life,” Hawkins said.

Friedland said there were many challenges while planning this event such as time constraints due to the fact, she and the other students had less than 14 weeks to put this fair together from scratch. She said that was the hardest part of the project because they all had to learn “how to quickly adapt to new challenges.”

“The easiest part of planning this event was that we all are so passionate to have the opportunity to educate and raise awareness on health and wellbeing,” Friedland said.

The fair is being funded by donations that the students collected from many of the participants, Rubino said. He also said professor Augustin “led an effort” to get the A.S. involved by donating $4,000 through the instructional related activities funding; emergency funding.

“(This) is going to provide us the ability to offer most of the cost of the fair,” Rubino said.

Augustin said it was a collaborative effort.

“The students went after people (vendors and participants) that really do epitomize how people can become more knowledgeable in healthy behavior,” Rubino said.

Augustin said other than raising awareness for the CSUN centers, the objective goal of the fair is also to raise awareness of health.

“People are becoming more aware of the importance of being healthy,” Augustin said. “So this really I think is our part as an educational institution to provide this service to the community, not just to the campus community but to the outside of the campus.”