17th Annual Fair

Featured Health & Public Safety Topics

By Andrew Gorosko

Amid weather that made it seem more like mid-July than late September, Newtown’s 17th Annual Great American Health & Public Safety Fair attracted residents to outdoor demonstrations and indoor displays at the Newtown Middle School campus last Saturday.

The September 25 event brought together a range of public safety units and health-related organizations to the Queen Street facility where they explained their work, provided demonstrations, and offered information and complimentary items to those attending the free exposition.

The annual event was organized by the American Red Cross, Dr Della Schmid, Mae Schmidle, the Newtown Health District, the Newtown public school system, and Newtown Visiting Nurse Association.

Besides several dozen exhibitors at the fair, the event offered influenza shots, and various health screenings in the middle school gymnasium. The health screenings covered blood sugar levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, posture, scoliosis, vision, skin cancer, and the presence of varicose veins.

Nonperishable foods for the needy were collected at the fair in a food drive.

Also, a representative of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) attended the fair to oversee a collection of residents’ unneeded prescription medications. The nationwide prescription drug take-back program is intended to reduce the abuse of such substances by children. Newtown was just one of a number of locations that had been set up across the state, and the country, for such collections on Saturday.

Judging by the amount of medications which were collected, the effort appeared to be a success on the local level.

A town police officer stood on guard near the drug collection boxes to prevent the substances from falling into the wrong hands. The DEA planned to incinerate the collected drugs elsewhere, according to the DEA representative.

Outdoors, on the broad lawn in front of the middle school, public safety organizations demonstrated their activities for the public.

Botsford Fire Rescue members demonstrated how firefighters use hydraulic tools and other devices to free people who are trapped in motor vehicles after serious accidents.

Newtown police brought Baro, their German shepherd, to the fair to demonstrate his abilities, which include the pursuit of criminal suspects, tracking lost people, and detecting the presence of certain illicit drugs.

State police brought two devices to the fair that demonstrated the effects of motor vehicle accidents and the need to wear seatbelts while traveling.

One machine, known as The Convincer, simulates the effects of a head-on crash. Another machine rotates the passenger section of a sedan to show the effects of rollover accidents.

Town Public Health Director Donna Culbert said of this year’s fair, “I thought it was great…The weather was very cooperative.”

Ms Culbert said the Danbury Visiting Nurse Association gave influenza vaccinations to more than 300 people at the fair. There was no “out of pocket” cost for those people receiving the flu shots, she said. If people who received a flu shot were not covered by health insurance for it, then the cost of the shot was covered by the Newtown VNA, Ms Culbert said.

Other popular events at the fair included a bicycle drawing for children, medical screenings, the prescription drug collection program, and the food drive, Ms Culbert said.