Departments Promote Healthy Habits
Comanche Nation held its health fair on Tuesday, April 21, at Watchetaker Hall.
Kevin Wahkinney, director of the medical center, said it’s the department's biggest event of the year.
“Today, we had 30 vendors show up,” he said. “We had close to, well, it was over a hundred participants, so we kind of reached out to the numbers that we were hoping to get, and we were excited to have everybody here.
Wahkinney said he hopes everyone engages with vendors and collaborators.
“Well, we encourage everybody. That's why we set it up the way we set it up so that the clients and the participants can come and they can stand face-to-face with the vendor for the other programs,” he said. “They can ask the questions, whether they're personal questions or for their community, and they're going to get direct answers, and that's what I love about this, because if you notice, in between, we always have questions and answers. You know, we'll call on the audience. We'll see if they have any questions, and we can try to answer everything right then, so there's no beating around the bush. There's no secondhand information. They're getting it right directly from us. That's why I like this particular event the way we have it set up.”
Wahkinney said they try to get attendees out of their shells for group activities.
“So, when we're going around the room, we were asking people to represent themselves. We're just encouraging that more than anything, just that relaxed environment that you're free to say whatever you want to say and how you want to say it,” he said. “Because a lot of times people come in and feel like, ‘Oh, I can't say it like this’ or ‘I can't say like that.’ We don't have any of that here. Just whatever is on your mind that pertains to these events, we want you to ask in the way that you want to, so that we can answer the question to where you can understand it.”
There were several collaborators for the health fair, including the University of Oklahoma, IHS and Comanche Nation health-specific programs.
Wahkinney’s next events will be the outreaches, which begin June 20 in Wichita, Kansas. And then continue in Oklahoma City, Anadarko and Dallas on June 25, 26 and 27. The programs will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on July 23, 24 and 25.
