TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — A host of business professionals, who work hard every day fighting illnesses, converged at Ivy Tech Wednesday morning for the annual Community Health and Wellness Fair.
Organizations like Recovery Centers of America, Tobacco Free Vape Free Vigo, and Thrive united to educate the public and help students get ready for their future careers.
Executive Director of Human Resources at Ivy Tech, Chris Williams, says the event is aimed to help students and staff.
“We’ve been doing this event for close to 22 years now”, Williams said. “The event is really for us to make sure that our students, staff, and faculty have a good opportunity to visit with our community partners and find out about health and wellness initiatives throughout the Wabash Valley.”
This year, 45 different organizations took part in the fair, mostly educating guests on the medical details of health.
However, Heather Cosme Milian, Natural Resource Programmer for Vigo County Parks and Rec, said they attend the event every year to show different ways to stay healthy.
“When they’re thinking of health and wellness, we want them to think I can get outside”, Cosme Milian said. “Whether that’s going hiking at the parks or going to Griffin Bike Park and riding bikes. We have a lot of things available for people to do. We want to make sure we highlight getting outside and everything that we have going on.”
The networking wasn’t just for students, as two organizations are now working together on a new project for the public.
“We’re sitting here with Jay’s Bikes”, Cosme Milian said. “We actually just purchased 20 bikes that we got through our Health First Indiana funds with the Vigo County Health Department. We are going to be doing a lot of youth programming, a lot more youth programming.”
The Health and Wellness Fair was open to all residents, as Ivy Tech hopes the event will continue to grow as time goes on.
“My favorite part about this event is getting to see all the partners that come back every year and how their businesses have adapted and changed to some of the newer trends in the healthcare field”, Williams said. “It’s really good to see the partners as they come back and how they’re changing with the times.”
Ivy Tech leaders say the fair has also resulted in some students landing jobs at local health and wellness organizations.
