Project Idea: Woodlawn Health Fair

Rebecca Harris

Team Woodlawn started week 2 together thinking that our community health project would be to have a health fair at the end of the summer.  Having started exploring Woodlawn the previous week, we were all impressed by the number of resources the community has, and a health fair seemed to be the best way to make our findings more accessible to others.  Then, on Monday, we met with Keyon Kemp, a faculty member at University of Chicago Woodlawn Charter School, and found out that the idea of a health fair was already being pursued.  This September 1^st, the first annual Woodlawn health fair will be held at UCW.  The fair will be divided up into several different concourses: one for health, which will involve health screenings and health education; one for nutrition, which will include a smoothie bar and hydration station, among others; and one for wellness, which will include fitness activities such as track and yoga.

While some of our students were initially disappointed that their health project idea was already being pursued by others in the community, it soon became apparent that this will only make the fair bigger, better, and ultimately more sustainable in the years to come.  While our group will not be running the fair ourselves, we eagerly joined forces with Mr. Kemp.  Not only will our high schoolers present their new health project at the fair this September, we will also be setting out into the community to recruit people and institutions to come to the fair so that everyone can learn about all of the assets we have discovered in Woodlawn this summer.