The Calvin College nursing department will hold its 11th-annual health fair from 10 a.m. through 1 p.m. Saturday, May 3 at Palmer Elementary School, 309 Palmer St. N.E. 
“This is a very valued event by the community,” said Calvin nursing professor Debra Bossenbroek of the yearly collaboration between Calvin nursing students and the school plus Catherine’s Care Center, Berean Baptist Church and the Creston Neighborhood Association—where all of the partner organizations are located.
Through the community focus of the Calvin nursing program, junior and senior students serve their practicums in one of three Grand Rapids neighborhoods, and the health fair is a traditional event for those students who work in the Creston-Belknap area. 
The fair will feature food truck, courtesy of the church, activities and an array of booths—some with catchy names—from which the Calvin nursing students will educate visitors on the whole gamut of health issues:
"Happy Hygiene and Teeth”; “Depression”; “Poison Control”; “Butts Are Gross”; “First Aid”; “Healthy Snacks and Nutrition”; “Soda Pop: Danger to Your Health”; “Raise a Reader”; “Exercise and Heart Health”; “Be a Nurse”; “Fun in the Sun”; “STD Prevention”; “Asthma Booth”; “Community Gardening”; “Water Safety”; “Resource Center Map” (which distributes a map to local health resources); “Blood Sugar Screening and Diabetes Information”; and “Community Health Worker.”
The booth names don’t tell the whole story, Bossenbroek said, and she is happy to elaborate: “Butts Are Gross” has a quit-smoking theme; “Fun in the Sun” preaches the benefits of daily sunscreen application, not sunbathing. 
"Raise a Reader,” while a self-explanatory title is also an unexpected health message, she said: “Not everybody thinks of literacy as important to health care, and it is. You need to be able to read to keep yourself healthy. The Grand Rapids schools have been working hard on reading programs and literacy efforts, so this booth flowed naturally from their efforts.” 
The Creston-Belknap student nurses will get a lot of help from fellow students. Nursing students serving their practicums in the Burton-Heights area will staff the “Blood Sugar Screening and Diabetes Information” booth. And Calvin social work students will be in charge of “Radon Information.”
The students will also get a big hand from booths hosted by partner organizations: “Get the Lead Out,” an organization that educates about lead abatement; "Grand Rapids Red Cross"; "Campfire USA Program"; "Creston Neighborhood Association"; "Grand Valley Blood Bank," which will offer blood typing to visitors; "Safe Haven Ministries"; "Dance Dance Revolution"; Life Guidance Services"; "Grand Rapids Fire Department"; and "Grand Rapids Crime Prevention." 
Catherine’s Care Center will offer cholesterol screening and the services of a cardio-vision machine, which reads a client’s risk for heart disease.
Visitors to the health fair will be given opportunities to exercise: The “Dance Dance Revolution” booth will keep things moving with a video dance game and the “Exercise and Heart Health” booth will offer a variety of jump-roping games as the featured activity. “Jump-roping is very good exercise,” Bossenbroek said, adding, “You have to keep going; you can’t start and stop.”
The fair will also offer giveways: jump ropes at the exercise booth and posters and nursing pins at the “Be a Nurse” booth sponsored by the Calvin Class of 2009 nursing students. Young fair-goers may also enter their names in a drawing to win a new bicycle.
The annual fair—which takes two rotations of nursing students to plan and evaluate— teaches the future nurses the benefits of community partnering, said Bossenbroek. “It gives them a broad perspective on how nursing can be involved in public health by working with health professionals outside a hospital setting. I think it just shows them that nursing students can make a difference.”
The health fair, which drew an attendance of 400 last year, is also a real benefit to the community, she said. “We hope that it increases their awareness of the resources in their area. People know it’s coming every year, and they look forward to it.”