Helmets

You know my passion for the 9HealthFair, though I try to tone it down a bit on the blog.  I've been a volunteer since 1997 and in the last ten years it has become a very big part of my life.  Three years ago, my school was lucky enough to be approved to host our own Family9HealthFair.  Our Family Wellness Coordinator is pretty passionate about helmets for traumatic brain injury (TBI) prevention, so we've always offered free bike helmets to kids at our fair.

Unfortunately, our budget is running a little tight this year and we can't buy the number of helmets we'd like to (25), so she put together a gofundme account and we hope to raise $500 dollars to purchase new helmets.

I hate to beg, but this is something very near and dear to my heart, so if you can donate even just a dollar, that would help us in our efforts to keep Northern Colorado's children safe.

Thanks.

Resuming Life

A Family Affair -
Nebalee, Asset, Ashinator and me

You know how much I love the 9HealthFair?  Sure you do, I talk about it pretty much every April.

Well, I love it so much, I thought it would be a good idea to host a Family 9HealthFair.  Nevermind that the spring fairs consume my life from January through April, that wasn't nearly enough, apparently.  Nope, why not let it consume my life from June through September, too?

Jay's pretty patient.  I'm certain there was nothing in our wedding vows about being a 9HealthFair widower eight months out of the year, yet he never grumbles.  It's not like I get paid an additional salary for all of my work with the fair - it's a volunteer-run organization (for the most part - there are 20 paid employees that oversee the tens of thousands of volunteers state-wide).

And this year, it wasn't just me involved.  I recruited Nebalee to be my Wellness Coordinator.  The fall fairs are different from the springs ones in that the focus is on families, so I needed someone to coordinate kids' and family activities.  Cue Nebalee.

She did an outstanding job.  Her ideas really elevated our fair.  She asked for teddy bears to give out to the kids, so that she could teach "Teddy Bear First Aid". 

Is this the best idea ever or what?

The kiddos learned how to put pressure on bleeding and what to do if their Teddy Bear falls (Don't move!) and when to call 911.  Somewhere, there's a picture of Autobot and Kyzzer all gloved up with their bears.  Super cute.

Nebalee also managed to get the Smoke House from the fire department.  The Smoke House is a training tool that is used primarily with second-graders in our school district.  It has three rooms; the first room is where they talk about kitchen safety, the second about fireplace and heater safety, and the third room they talk about how to check a door to see if it's hot and how to get out of the room if there's smoke in it.  The third room is by far the coolest.  The bedroom door is actually designed so that if you run the back of your hand down it from top to bottom, you'll feel it go from cool to hot.  They also pump in theatrical smoke so simulate how dark and scary it can be if the room fills with smoke.  In the midst of the room filling with smoke, the smoke detector is screaming.  It's really quite an experience.

Even grown-ups like the Smoke House

This was the first year I've acted as the Site Coordinator, always in the past I've been a worker bee.  At times it was very difficult for me to do the schmoozing and glad-handing that goes on with being the Site Coordinator.  After about the first hour, everyone was settled into their jobs and didn't need me for anything other than giving tours and answering questions the bigwigs from the organization.  I guess that's a sign of success.  Everything went smoothly enough that I didn't have to race around putting out fires.

I've now got a few weeks of downtime before NaNoWriMo starts up, so maybe I can get a few things posted and get caught up with everyone.  We've got very special company coming in from the 18 - 21 and I'm so excited I just want to jump up and down.

Then, of course, November means I'll be scarce again as I try to crank out another 50,000 words in 30 days.

So, pretty much, we're back to situation normal here.

Volunteering - Just Do It

You know I love "my" 9HealthFair.  It's an amazing community-based health fair that helps approximately 95,000 people annually in Colorado. 

The 9HF is always an amazing source of stress for me because I invest so much time and effort into it.  Each year from February until the end of April, my life revolves around the 9HF.  I spend every Saturday in February and most of March training RN students to do phlebotomy, holding community refresher courses, and - of course - training my own students.  The RN student coordinator estimated that I've trained almost 500 RN students over the past five years.  All of those RN students are spread throughout the Northern Colorado fairs.  Northern Council is the only council that doesn't face a shortage of volunteers, phlebotomy or otherwise, which makes me so happy to live here, where so many  people are willing to volunteer their time to help others in their community.  Working with the 9HF is the reason why I'm pursuing my Master's in Public Health - with such an amazing model to follow, how could I not?

All of the stress and loss of weekends pays off once April begins - that's when my RN "chillins" are sent out into the real world to ply their trade and practice on real patients.  They are out of the nest and it's up to them to fly - it's hard, because I can't be at all of the fairs with them, though I desperately want to be.

My MA students, who I have for twenty months over the course of their program, really do become surrogate children and I'm so proud of all of those who worked this weekend.  They put in long hours without complaint, went out of their way to help wherever they were needed, and in general made everyone's life easier.  For many of my students, this is their first time volunteering; they've never felt the joy of helping other people out just for the sake of it.  I hope it becomes a life-long habit for them like it has for some of my grads.

I had four of my MA grads who are currently working in the field come back as proctors to help the new students and they were amazing. The two grad on the left are working multiple fairs this year.

Grads (L -> R) 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2011

I even have some of my grads who are part of the "core team" that travels from fair to fair helping out all of the new students.

Our core team:
the four blue shirts immediately around me are my grads,
the one to the left of the green shirt is an adopted grad.

I hear over and over again from their site coordinators how wonderful it is to have the students at their fairs - that the students are always professional, friendly, and willing to help wherever they are needed.  I can't take any credit for that - it's who the students are - but it makes me happy that those students will soon be working in medicine "for real" and I hope that their attitudes never change, that they will always face their career with the joy and sense of wonder with which they face their volunteerism.

My actual children, Digger, Ashinator, and Monster, have all volunteered at the 9HealthFair and for our local fire department's Public Education department.  We started volunteering because I could never afford to donate money.  My apologies, I have some amazing pre-digital pictures of the kids working the 9HF, but, of course, I can't find them.

Monster, Digger, Ashinator
2008 FlameOut5K race

We even got their friends in on it.

This year, even Autobot got into it.  Last year, she and Kyzzer helped behind the scenes with set-up of the phlebotomy area, but this year Nebalee and Mr. Nebalee agreed that she could skip school to come work the actual fair.  She put in about twelve hours of volunteer time over three days.

Giving kids clothes and food is one thing but it's much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important, and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people.  Dolores Huerta

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.  Margaret Mead

Date Night

Last night was the 3rd Annual Saucy Affair, a fundraiser for my beloved 9HealthFair.  I've wanted to take RCC since they began doing this as their primary fundraiser.  This year, they offered a raffle for volunteers - if your name was drawn you got a free ticket when you purchased a regular ticket.  I threw my name in the raffle and got lucky enough to be one of the winners.  At $65.00 a person, it was pretty much the only way I'd get to take RCC.

Fifteen or so of Denver's restaurants competed for the "People's Choice" title; each restaurant served small plates for the participants to choose from, each plate had to have a sauce (it was, after all, a "saucy" challenge).  I knew that there would be a huge chance that most of the restaurants would serve seafood, which is disgusting as far as I'm concerned.  But I also knew that whatever I didn't eat, RCC would.




I did something I rarely do - I got all girled up: hair, makeup, jewelry, dress and heels.  I drew the line at hose; the etiquette people will just have to get over my bare legs.  It felt good to slip into my black dress and not feel like I was going to bust out the seams.  And, don't anyone repeat this, it was kinda fun to be a girly-girl for a little bit.  Approximately 20 minutes, anyway.  That's all it took for my feet to start hurting and my knees to rebel.

In the meantime, RCC and I drank "free" wine and ate ourselves sick.  The restaurant that got my "People's Choice" vote was Texas de Brazil - they served garlic mashed potatoes and flank steak with chimichurri.  They actually won my vote with the garlic mashed, but then I tasted the flank steak and about fell out it was so good.  RCC voted for Avenue Grill, which served a shrimp with a soy-ginger sauce.  Texas de Brazil won, pretty much hands-down.  It was truly the garlic mashed that won it for them - everyone was talking about it.

I was excited to see a handful of people that I work with during the planning stages of the 9HealthFair.  In fact, I told RCC that I felt a little like a celebrity there for a bit.  My phlebotomy classes for the medical assisting and nursing students in the Northern Council are garnering a fair bit of attention at the corporate level.  Seeing people who were genuinely happy to see RCC and me was a bonus.  I went not expecting to run into anyone we know.


The evening was topped off with cupcakes on the way out the door from one of Denver's favorite cupcake vendors, the Denver Cupcake Truck.

As much fun as I had, I couldn't wait to get my dang heels off and get ice on my knees, which swelled more and more by the minute.  I don't know how other women can wear heels to work, as part of their grown up clothes.  I think I'll stick with wearing scrubs and tennis shoes.

9Health Fair

I've been talking up the 9HealthFair on my blog for two years now.  As I was posting my videos on YouTube, it dawned on me that there might be some other videos up, so I searched it.  I found a short (five minute or so) video on the history of the 9Health Fair.  When I viewed it, I got an extra bonus - at 31 seconds, there's a still photo of me working it way back in college.  This was taken in 1997, the year I got divorced (I've been with the Fair for a long time).

2010 Fort Collins 9HF

Finally!

The 9HealthFair is over.  Don't get me wrong, I love it.  I love preparing for the Health Fair, I love working the Health Fair and I love it when it's over.  Usually, the Fort Collins Fair serves approximately 2,500 people over two days.  This year, our numbers were down, which was a disappointment to me.  We only served about 1,800 people.  This is the first year we haven't hit 2,000 people.

I would have thought with the economy in the toilet the way it is, that more people would have taken advantage of the free screenings.  Even our blood draws were offered at cost: the Blood Chemistry Screening is valued at about $800 and we only charge $30; the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) usually runs around $200 and we only charged $25.  Seriously, thanks to Quest Diagnostics, we offer the lowest-priced blood tests around.  Everything else - skin cancer screening, oral cancer screening, bone density, digital rectal exams, testicular and breast exams - all free.  So, why, when the majority of the nation is struggling, were we down almost seven hundred people?  It makes no sense to me (unless, of course, everyone's waiting for their *free* healthcare from Obama).

Despite being disappointed, we did still serve 1,800 people and that's a whole lot more than if we didn't have the 9HealthFair.  And I'm so unbelievably proud of my students - they were amazing! The people in the blue scrubs are my students.  There was another school there in black t-shirts, and they brought almost 100 volunteers.  I only took 50 - it's easier to keep control of smaller groups and make sure they're acting professionally.  For some of my students this is the first "grown up" job they've had and the professional behavior is completely different from any of the throw away jobs they've had in the past.

Blood Pressure

Phlebotomy

Three of my grads who now help run the Fair: PeeWee, Roo, and Ria

The Calm Before The Storm

Tomorrow is our big 9HealthFair.

Tonight, we wait.

The site is set up: all forty-four phlebotomy stations are stocked and ready to go; the twenty-four blood pressure stations are lined up like soldiers awaiting the fight; the twelve sixteen-head centrifuges are laying dormant on their tables waiting for the chaos to begin in fourteen hours.

The other stations, which we don't staff, are standing ready for the onslaught of participants tomorrow morning.  We're planning on between 1,500 and 1,800 participants tomorrow alone.  Saturday, believe it or not, will be our slow day; we'll only do between 1,200 and 1,500.

I can't wait.

Bring it.

2010 Loveland 9HF

Today was the first of two 9HealthFairs my students will work.  We spend the entire beginning of the year working toward this goal; it's the best "real world" experience the students can get while still, you know, students.  We put through about 700 participants (patients) today; next week we'll do approximately 2,500 in two days, so today's really just warm up for the main event.

Here's a little video of my students at work...



It's a fun, exhilarating, exhausting day, but so worth it.

9Health Fair

Last Friday and Saturday my medical specialties students volunteered to help staff Phlebotomy, Centrifuge, and Blood Pressure. They ROCKED! I may be a hard-ass in the classroom, but it pays off out in the "real" world. I'm so proud of all of the hard work my students put in. So far, without all of the time cards in, we've volunteered over 160 hours on Friday and over 180 hours on Saturday. My students completed more than 500 of the 2100 blood draws for the weekend.

Loveland 9Health Fair

I have to take some blogging space to brag about my students. For those of you who don't know, I'm the Medical Department Chair at a Career College and a large part of my job is teaching (at least that's the part I love the most - I could do without some of the administrative headache) future Medical Assistants the skills they will need for work. Each year, my students volunteer for the 9Health Fairs in Loveland and Fort Collins. They work in a variety of positions: phlebotomy, centrifuge, and blood pressure. The Health Fairs are something that we spend an entire year talking up and preparing the students for - there is no better work experience than actually working and there is no better feeling than volunteering your time to a worthy cause.

This year, because of the weather, we only saw about 600 patients, but between students, staff, and family members, we donated over 155 hours of volunteer time. My students basically staffed the Fair, with almost 20 phlebotomists, 6 centrifugists, and 24 BP takers. It was amazing and they did a phenomenal job. The Loveland Fair is basically a warm up for the Fort Collins Fair that occurs on the 24th and 25th. We're expecting to put over 3,000 people through the Fort Collins Fair and I'm so proud of my students for participating in such a worthy event.