Students see value in health fair lessons
Reprinted from www.gazette.net
by Tiesha Higgins
Staff Writer Mar. 25, 2004

About half of the 900 students at Forestville High School attended the "Smoke Free, Healthy Me" health fair at the school last week.

For some, the fair was more than they had bargained for. Seventeen-year-old Matthew Taylor has smoked since he was 13.

"I can't go without smoking," said Taylor.

"What makes you smoke and what would make you quit?," Pamela Thomas asked him.

Thomas is the coordinator for the Prince's George's Community College Health Education Center.

"Cigarette smoke stays in the room for five hours, even with the windows open. So you're putting your family at risk too," she said.

At this point, Taylor confessed that his aunt, who started smoking at age six, now suffers from emphysema.

"I want to know what we can do for you today that would make you put down the cigarettes," said Thomas as she handed him a card for a smoking cessation program at the end of their 10-minute conversation. "I want to see you live long."

Thomas was one of a dozen vendors at the March 19 fair, educating visitors on everything from HIV to hospice care to chiropractic physical therapy. In other parts of the building, students were getting in shape as part of free aerobics class or listening to speakers conducting classroom presentations on youth impact issues.

In one room, science teacher Q. Hardiman's class listened intently to a presentation on date rape.

"Many know someone who has been raped. They are paying attention because it's something they can relate to," Hardiman said. "And they're asking questions."

Spearheaded by an Upper Marlboro-based outreach program for girls called SISTAS that operates at the school, the four-hour fair was sponsored by Ready 4 Battle clothing line and Bowie State University.

"Some of them don't even go to the doctors and don't get any information on what is proper for their bodies," said Eric Gray, Chief Executive Officer of Ready 4 Battle.

While Landover-based Sports and Spine Rehab measured body fat and gave free chiropractic injury consultations, health company BWHC, Inc. told students how to get a free HIV test in 20 minutes and Maryland Smoking Stops Here exchanged smoke prevention pledge cards for spins on a Wheel of Fortune for school supply prizes.

According to students, the fair was more than just a chance to get out of class. For Arnetta Knox, 17, information provided by the Lupus Foundation of Greater Washington at the fair held special interest.

"My mother has lupus. We talked about it, but I didn't know all of the symptoms that can come with it," said Knox of Forestville.

For more information on SISTAS, call 301-780-5650 or write to SISTAS, P.O. Box 575, Upper Marlboro, Md. 20773.

E-mail Tiesha Higgins at thiggins@gazette.net.