Logan County Community Health Fair coming March 23

[March 08, 2013]  The Logan County Community Health Fair continues to promote and educate area residents on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle through screenings, information and programs offered by health and social service organizations at the local, state and regional level. This year's health fair will be on Saturday, March 23, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Lincoln Park District Sports Center. All activities, programs and collections will be on-site unless otherwise noted.

The Community Health Fair will offer numerous health screenings, including blood pressure, oral cancer screenings and body mass indexes, which are free to the public. Cholesterol and hemoglobin screenings will be offered at a nominal cost. Well water testing, child fingerprinting will also be offered. The American Red Cross will sponsor a blood drive. Additionally, the health fair will again offer residents the opportunity to recycle a variety of different items in an environmentally friendly and responsible manner.

The State Bank of Lincoln will sponsor shredding of confidential papers and destruction of hard drives as part of the Community Health Fair. The shredding and hard drive destruction program offers residents the opportunity to have items such as financial records, old tax returns and other sensitive household records shredded and destroyed in a secure and confidential manner. Proper disposal of these sensitive items may prevent individuals from becoming victims of identity theft. The paper shredding and hard drive destruction will be available from 9 a.m. to noon in the front parking lot of Lincoln Community High School.

There will also a glass recycling collection in the front parking lot of LCHS from 9 a.m. to noon. The recycling program accepts only container glass, meaning it originally contained either a food or beverage product. Participants will need to remove all plastic and metal caps and rings from the container. All colors of glass are accepted and do not have to be sorted. The glass recycling program does not accept ceramics, dishware, light bulbs, window glass or mirrors. Glass recycling will be canceled in event of inclement weather.

Expired or unwanted medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, will be collected through an unwanted medication collection, co-sponsored by the Healthy Communities Partnership and the Kroger pharmacy. Medications must be in the original container with label and with the name blacked out to ensure privacy. The Lincoln Police Department will be on-site to oversee the collection process. Residents are reminded that it is no longer acceptable to dispose of any medication by flushing it down the toilet, as chemical compounds are now being detected in groundwater samples.

Eyeglasses and hearing aids will be collected by the Lions Club for distribution to visually and hearing impaired individuals in the U.S. and around the world. New, used, damaged or broken eyeglasses and hearing aids will be accepted.

Cellphones, both working and non-working, will be collected for donation to Sojourn Woman's Center. The cellphones will be reprogrammed and provided to victims of domestic violence for their use in emergency situations.

Laser and ink-jet printer cartridges will be collected by Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois. Proceeds from recycling the printer cartridges will be used to supplement ongoing programs for low-income individuals, household, children and seniors.

Tabs from aluminum cans will be collected for donation to the area's Ronald McDonald House.

Containers will be provided at the health fair for the collection of plastic grocery bags.

As always, this year's Logan County Community Health Fair offers something for everyone, whether your goal is maintain or improve your health or to complete some spring cleaning and dispose of items in an environmentally friendly way.

For additional information on health screenings, contact Mallory Ramos of the Logan County Department of Public Health at 735-2317. With recycling questions, contact Mitzi Rohlfs, Logan County Joint Solid Waste Agency coordinator, at 732-9636.