Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Carter and Kaarina Grasso stopped by the Community Mental Health booth to make a calming bottle.
By Megan Hughes
Wakefield - This past Saturday the Wakefield VFW was bustling with activity as organizer Lynnea Laessig and the Gogebic-Ontonagon Great Start Collaborative welcomed attendees to their inaugural Family Wellness Fair.
The fair started at 10 a.m. on Saturday with local healthcare groups and businesses setting up tables to spread the message of personal health.
"Our goal is to inspire and educate people to make healthy choices and promote self-care." Laessig said.
Laessig is from Mama Tuki Birth and Motherhood Support, which offers a variety of supportive and educational services for expecting and new mothers. She explained that several businesses and events at the fair would go to funding the postpartum care baskets that Mama Tuki offers to new mothers.
"We offer them to new mothers in Gogebic and northern Iron County, and they include a variety of goods that they may need," she said.
According to Laessig the fair got a start when she reached out to the Gogebic-Ontonagon Great Start Collaborative with the idea. "It turns out they had wanted to run something similar for a long time, so we decided to make it a collaboration."
As such the two groups worked together to spread the word and get preparations made.
"We started off reaching out to some of the more well known organizations, like the local hospitals, and expanded from there." Laessig said. "The rest are local businesses that we heard about and reached out to."
Some of the organizations that were in attendance included: Holistic Health for Superior Living, MSU Extension, Usborne Books, Commodities (Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency), Mission Skate Shop, Head Start, Community Mental Health, Ashland Birth Center, Kaarina's Krafts, Earth and Sky Day Spa and the Gogebic-Ontonagon Great Start Collaborative.
There were several scheduled events for children and parents throughout the fair's run, including children's yoga and a BMX demonstration. Children also had the chance to make a calming bottle with glitter, confetti and other fun craft materials at the Community Mental Health table.
One of the biggest events of the day was the raffle, in which participants had a chance to win a variety of prizes provided by businesses in attendance and donations. The money raised through the raffle goes to support Mama Tuki's postpartum baskets.
Organizers plan to turn the fair into an annual event. The effort is to improve overall community health through educating attendees about the various healthcare groups that are available in their communities.
