The Central Marin Community Health Fair, run by the Central Marin Community Resiliency Team, provided free services and information on health, fire safety and nutrition in Greenbrae on Wednesday, Nov. 12. 

Organizations from around the county participated in the event, providing vaccines, vision and oral exams alongside a variety of healthcare resources to county residents. Kaiser Permanente and Safeway administered Flu and COVID-19 vaccines, Buckelew Programs provided suicide prevention information and OD Free Marin supplied information on overdoses and free naloxone–a medication used to reverse an opioid overdose.

The fair ran from 4–6 p.m. at Bacich Community Center in Greenbrae and was organized by Central Marin’s Community Resiliency Team (CRT), an organization supported by Marin Health & Human Services and BluePath Health.

Nancy Vernon, CRT lead staff member and advisor at BluePath Health, commented on the importance of organizing health fairs in the community. 

“Marin is one of the most inequitable counties in the state … if you look at an area like Marin City, for instance, and you look at the life expectancy, and then you look at [that] in Ross, there’s a big difference,” Vernon said. “You see the impacts of that, so we just try to do what we can to make things more equitable.”

April Mansilla, senior program coordinator of Central Marin’s CRT, also discussed the purpose and importance of health conventions. 

“We bring partners together to provide services to the community. I think it’s bringing [these] services to where they’re needed, showing up in the community, [and] providing services to places that may not always know about them or have access to them,” Mansilla said.

The health fair was held for the school districts and families in the Central Marin area, which includes Corte Madera, Larkspur, Kentfield, Greenbrae and Fairfax. 

The health fair’s organizers focused on providing care for everyone in the community, regardless of language or background. 

“People think of these two school districts as being pretty homogeneous, but there are people [who] speak Spanish at home, and so most of the providers here are bilingual, [which]  is something that we felt like was really important,” Vernon said. “And a lot of the folks that we hope to reach are probably on Medi-Cal [a program that provides free or low-cost health coverage to low-income individuals] [and] don’t have private insurance, so [we provide] free eye exams and some other resources and benefits that they otherwise might not know about.”

CRTs have three public health priorities: emergency preparedness, overdose prevention and access to services, all of which the health fair blended together.

Community member Eulalia Ramirez attended the fair to receive a vaccine and talked about why the event was especially important to her.

“Este evento es importante, por nuestra salud siempre priorizar de que estar bien nosotros es estar bien también nuestra familia [y] todo nuestro alrededor.” (“This event is important because our health should always be a priority. Being well means our families and everyone around us are also well,”) Ramirez said.

Mansilla talked about the importance of providing services during hard times, and shared her hopes for the health fair’s effect on the community.

“I hope that it reminds people to take care of themselves, especially in these challenging times,” Mansilla said.