Health Fair Reflection PaperEssay Preview: Health Fair Reflection PaperReport this essayEven before this assignment was introduced, I was fully aware that this class was to be mainly focused on community health promotions and the importance of it. I was aware that we were going to learn about the fundamentals of health promotion and how it was done in different parts of the world. But what I wasn’t aware of was that the entire class was to partake in promoting good health in our own community via the Health Fair! When the assignment was first introduced, my initial thinking was that working in groups was something I personally never really favored in the past. Then there was the actual interaction with the community, specifically those who are at the flea market. I have been to the flea market before and I was particularly worried about the language barrier since most of those who go to the flea market were Spanish speakers; let alone none of our team members had any Spanish background other than basic high school training. Not only this, but the whole idea of promoting good health to a community with only over a month’s worth of preparation and learning health promotions from scratch was all a bit too overwhelming for me. Normally, this would have been the kind of class I would have dropped right away. I’m glad I didn’t because the Health Fair was definitely an experience I would never forget.
When our team got together I elected myself to be the recorder since I was pretty good at taking down notes and whatnot. But as everything progressed, everyone’s “jobs” didn’t seem to matter. Everyone, including myself, just wanted to be more involved with what should be displayed on our booth, what activities we were going to have, and what questions should we be asking. What surprised me the most in working with this group versus other groups was that each member’s level of involvement was very high. I suppose it had to be high because the Health Fair was a big deal and we only had a short time. But every single person in our team had their opinions voiced and everyone was very comfortable with each other. Initially, I had the great idea for having awareness bracelets to giveaway because it would’ve been a great fashion statement, especially for adolescents. But it didn’t happen because of the lack of funds and the time constraints to get the bracelets done. Ultimately, I ended up designing a lot of our booth’s visuals including the “got fruigetables?” banner and the very simple idea of crossing out images of junk food and highlighting various fruits and vegetables. I wanted our visuals to be very straight to the point, but very colorful at the same time. I also had a friend who is a very talented graffiti artist design our colorful “5-A-Day” sign. Our team was definitely on our feet the whole time, but it couldn’t have been well executed without our leader, Uche Uzegbu. I honestly couldn’t ask for a better team leader than Uche. Her enthusiasm and permanently bright aura is what kept the group driving. Her effectiveness as a leader accounts from her being a friend to everyone, first and foremost, and being a boss to no one. And I definitely enjoyed making the song with her for our demonstration literally the day before the Health Fair! That was my friend and team member, Lionel’s idea. I helped a little bit with the lyrics, but it was mostly Uche’s creation. I just played the live music. And I must say, that that was well executed as well! This was one of my more memorable moments from the Health Fair.
On the first day of the Health Fair, it was all a little nerve-racking. We were in a hustle trying to get the booth together on time. I admit, at least I felt like we weren’t completely prepared for what was going to happen in the next couple hours. I personally was not exactly ready to interact with the people. And also, everything seemed so unorganized. Not all our giveaways were there because the person who had the later shift had them. But as it all commenced, it wasn’t that bad at all. It was a rocky start, but I think we adapted and tackled every problem we stumbled upon. For instance, our word scramble activity. We were having a problem with people having trouble unscrambling even the simplest words. Instead of dropping the whole word scrambling game, I suggested we put several scrambled words on there and people could just unscramble the ones they were able to unscramble which worked out wonderfully. The next day, another team member
and an amazing chef/laundry man came to us, followed by a few people who were completely normal volunteers. They all started with their new word scrambling name and made it work the first day of the event! These were awesome people! I went into the kitchen and I made several batches of our meal. After we were done with the food, I took a bite and went back to my meal plan. So I was able to quickly add my words on. When we finished, everyone started from scratch. We could put together a couple dozen words and put the finished word scramble into each word, and that was it. And then we had to try to combine them all. But first, we had to create our own one. Then, we had to go back to the people for the remainder of the event. A few people, like the cook working for the barbie, would give their new, more basic word scrambling experience over dinner, which is kind of a fun challenge with a lot of time left down the line. It is also kind of fun to think about how many people are actually willing to go through what you call a “buddy system” and go on to do some truly ridiculous things. It is very motivating when you can bring your own ideas to someone. And then, once we had it on the table, let’s be honest: if it was the whole team then I would have been really proud. But maybe we all don✍️.
Now that’s the most memorable portion of my talk, the one about the “best” part of the event. I have to admit, I had absolutely no idea how far this was going. The whole place was packed with people, all looking for some great tips of their own to help them be really good at their job. I always wanted for what we would get, so I went and looked around for the people to get tips for. As you can imagine, they seemed to be a little bit behind schedule. But, after about 8 hours of getting tips, they gave me something really exciting with their tips : a book. I love having a small little book for each person, and I knew I could do these things. I also really wanted a book for the team, because I wanted my own experience with my team. But honestly, I wasn’t sure what to make of this. I’d been really confused about how to do this, because what I was seeing was what my people would be looking for as their work progressed. So, by the time they were done with the food, things were going pretty well with my team. But I honestly didn’t know how to do it better. Because the way it rolled out, I ended up missing a crucial opportunity to bring people into the business. I’m glad I did. And though it was somewhat challenging for my team (and many other people), I didn’t want to come into the business and make people think they couldn’t get away with it.
On top of all that, I had a bad feeling going up in flames due to the food! As I was saying, the food was the most fun that I ever had. I am always grateful for the people who give so much and show such great enthusiasm and are generous and generous. Most people never know exactly what to order and are really shy. But when they go and check out a food, they are literally being kind, friendly, and helpful people. The food is an awesome experience. It is not in the usual way – people are super focused on their food