Monroe residents take care of their health at Community Health Fair

By Chuck Gordon

How much Ibuprofen is too much? How much sleep should you be getting every night? Is your blood pressure in the healthy range?

Many people consult their doctor for answers to such questions, but, aside from using Dr. Claude or Nurse GPT, what can you do if you don't have access to a medical provider? Well, every fall in Monroe, you can come to the Community Health and Wellness Fair.

On Saturday, 257 people visited the annual fair, put on by Wingate University's health science programs at the Monroe Science Center, to learn more about how to live a healthier lifestyle.

The health fair offered a variety of services: Visitors could get their blood pressure and blood sugar checked, get a flu shot, get a more extensive check-up in Novant Health's Community Care Cruiser, visit The Closet for free children's clothes, take home free school supplies, and pick out free children's books in the UCPS Book Bus.

Wingate students also manned several tables providing useful health information. A fair visitor could learn the difference between a strain and a sprain (and when to seek medical care for musculoskeletal issues), how to properly care for their teeth, and how to prevent strokes. "Passports" attendees were given when they entered the fair were stamped at each table they visited and then redeemed later for prizes.

"I think it's awesome," says Ava Greene, a pharmacy student who was helping out at the musculoskeletal table, run by the Wingate chapter of the Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International. "Health literacy can be really varied in Monroe, so to see all of our healthcare programs at Wingate come together is really cool."

In the main hall of the science center, Wingate's nursing program ran tables on child safety and dental hygiene. In a separate room, nursing students were busy checking people's blood pressure.

"We thought it would be good to teach the community about little things that sometimes get overlooked, like brushing your teeth or looking both ways before you cross the road," says nursing student Melanie Cohee. "And we can check people's blood pressure, maybe send them to the (Novant) van out front if we feel like it's really high or low."

"They're not all able to go to a doctor," says fellow nursing student Carolina Chavez, "so this is an easy and accessible way for them to have these resources."

Dr. Lisa Dinkins, associate professor of pharmacy, has run the clinic the past four years. She says the students enthusiastically volunteer.

"It's a great opportunity to practice their skills, talking to people in the community, and building those soft skills," Dinkins says. "Knowing how to do something is one thing, but actually doing it on a variety of patient populations is different. I think they look forward to having that opportunity to practice, and a lot of them are just oriented toward service. This just fills their cup."

The final Community Health Fair numbers are impressive: More than 50 people got flu shots, 73 were screened for injuries, 55 had their blood pressure checked, 33 blood-sugar screenings were given, more than 60 children took home free books, and more than 80 people walked away with items from Heart for Monroe's clothing closet, some carrying multiple full trash bags. In the Novant mobile medical unit, 11 people underwent a Remarkable You checkup, which included blood-pressure, cholesterol and pre-diabetes screenings.

There were also more than 1,700 encounters at health-education tables. Rebecca McClough, associate director of the master of physician assistant studies program, helped out at a booth where children lay flat on their back on large sheets of paper while first-year physician assistant student Sofia Acosta traced around them. The children then placed cutouts of body organs where they thought they went on the drawing of their body.

The PA program also ran the glucose checks and a stroke-prevention table and offered other patient education. McClough says that if patients realized they needed to see a medical provider - say, their blood sugar was high - then Wingate students might refer them to the Community Health Services free clinic.

"I think it's a great opportunity for us to show the community all the different health-science programs at Wingate, but it's really more about how we can serve people," she says. "We provide people with opportunities to learn things about their health, especially if they might never get a chance to go to primary care or a physical therapist. It provides them with an opportunity for a lot of education surrounding their own health."

At the sleep-awareness table, Dr. Wynnet Sinclair, associate professor of occupational therapy, supervised while students told visitors why it's so important to get a good night's sleep. She says that lack of sleep can lead to a variety of health problems, including memory loss, retinal migraines, and weight gain, which itself can lead to issues such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

"When you're not able to sleep correctly, it affects your mood," Sinclair says. "It affects every facet of your life. If you're not sleeping, it's a domino effect."

It took more than 100 volunteers to pull off the health fair, including students and faculty from six programs: physical therapy, physician assistant studies, occupational therapy, pharmacy, public health, and nursing. Also, members of the men's lacrosse team kept children engaged during the fair and helped pack everything up afterward.

The fair was sponsored by Novant, Heart for Monroe, and Walgreens.

Sept. 28, 2026