By Mary Jo Coulehan | Pagosa Springs Area Chamber of Commerce
We have been focusing on the upcoming Archuleta Health Fair and Expo to be held on Saturday, Oct. 21, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pagosa Springs High School.
The Chamber has partnered with Healthy Archuleta and the new Archuleta County Public Health Department to help bring this absent program back to our community.
Why is the Chamber involved? Healthier employees mean healthier businesses. Obviously, healthy employees mean less call-outs and absences. However, healthier employees don’t just mean during cold and flu season. Are you actively encouraging your employees to live healthier lives and take care of themselves and look at preventative measures, not just reactive measures?
If your employees could participate in this health fair, get some low-cost blood work and discover a latent or pre-critical problem, wouldn’t benefiting them benefit your business? Perhaps your business can’t afford “regular” health care benefits. However, have you thought of signing them up for the lab work and then paying for the lab work to have your employees participate? It could be a benefit that is financially feasible for your business and shows your staff that you care about them and their health.
There are only 200 lab work slots available. In addition, since the fair opens at 7 a.m., shift workers could still attend by signing up for the early slots or perhaps those slots closer to 10 a.m. Help your employees register for the Health Fair. Go to https://www.foodcoalition4archuleta.org/archuleta-health-fair-and-expo.html for more information and to register.
Could your business also give interested employees time off to attend some of the cooking demos or connect with a health care provider or attend some of the educational classes for themselves or the health of a family member such as insurance coverage and management, senior services and youth mental health?
Volunteers have been putting up posters and delivering paycheck inserts. Are you making your employees aware of this program in your staff meetings? Being an employer and interested in providing health care benefits doesn’t just mean offering health care coverage. We can support ourselves and our staff through other “healthy” measures.
Getting engaged in this Health Fair and Expo is one way of supporting your employees’ health. Talk this health fair up around your business and support those employees that would like to engage in any component of the expo. Transportation from some of the more remote areas of our county such as Arboles and Aspen Springs will be receiving transportation services. Stay tuned for a schedule of this amenity.
If you are a business that is engaged in the health care arena, whether medical, products or services, you could reserve a booth at the health fair. This is a low-cost way to get the word out about your product or service. Contact Mary Jo at the Chamber for an application and more information.
For more information about the health fair, how to get posters or payroll inserts, how to sponsor or for registration, you can contact the Chamber at (970) 264-2360 or Healthy Archuleta at (401) 206-4579.
