Tulalip Health Fair 2012

Friday was the 28th annual Tulalip Health Fair.  Last year was our first year attending and the kids had such a good time, we had to go back.  I told Dode he had to come attend with us so we could get more free stuff.  He didn't mind, his boss gave him two hours during the work day to attend.  They have lots of vendors both from the tribe and local businesses that give out information and swag.

You get a piece of paper at the beginning that you take along to all the booths.  Once you have enough signatures, you get to play Plinko and receive a prize.  Minutes after arriving, Elizabeth was off and frantically getting her signatures.  When she went up to get her Plinko disks (2 per person), they said, "Children don't get to play Plinko, you get a special prize for children."  She was not pleased!  She said to me, "They didn't even ask how old I was!"  It's a good thing she wasn't paying attention later because I saw a few kids who couldn't be older that 9 or 10 playing Plinko!

The kids came home loaded up with free stuff.

I think  it's funny that both year they provided a lunch.  Hot dogs, chips, pop.  I know that hot dogs are the cheapest way to feed a large group of people but I don't think it's the healthiest way!  Why not a huge vegetarian buffet?  Or, traditional Tulalip food which has to be healthier than hot dogs!

This year they added a fun run/walk to the event.  We participated in that too.  It ended up being less than a mile.  There were probably 15 people who participated.  The Tulalip Fire Department made sure we were safe while walking down the sidewalk next to a quiet rural road for the event by following us with their lights flashing.  The noisy diesel creeping behind us was sure reassuring!  There was some confusion about where the finish line was.  The runners were in front of the woman who was organizing the event.  She told them to go back to where we started.  She'd left out the information that the finish was at the back of the building (we'd stared in the front).   So although Anastaya was the first to make it back, they awarded first prize to someone else.  When the woman learned what happened, she gave Anastaya the pink Nike bag in the photo.

Doing our warm up stretches before the event.

One thing they were offering at the event was free blood sugar and cholesterol testing.  I was excited to get that done.  They told me I could wait 15 minutes for my results.  I waited and when I met with the medical technician, they went through the whole blood sugar thing, talking about how to keep my blood sugar steady and then giving me my A1C results, normal.  They said, "Well, have a good day."  I said, "But what about the cholesterol test?"  "Are you a tribal member?"  Me, sensing that I might not like where this was headed, where my arm poke and waiting around might have been a waste replied, "No."  "Let me go check."  They came back and told me that they had to send the cholesterol tests out and the results should be back in about a week.  Relief!  I would get the results, just not that day.  I'm wanting to hear my cholesterol results because the last time I was tested, I was over 220.  I've been eating a vegan diet 99% of the time (I can count the times I've eaten meat or dairy in the last year on one hand) since last August.  I want to see if I could bring my number down below 180 through diet.