NMSU-Alamogordo prioritizes community's health

ALAMOGORDO — An estimated 200 participants joined New Mexico State University-Alamogordo's second annual Health and Wellness Fair Saturday.

"What we were trying to do this weekend with the health fair was to get our community to take care of their health," said Dr. Ernestine Baca, professor of Physical Health. "To do that, we brought in exhibitors, we had exercise classes, we had free screening tests going on – we just wanted people to put their health first. We were trying to remind people that nothing else is more important until you take care of your health."

About 40 local groups and businesses from Alamogordo and Las Cruces had tables at the fair in an array of interests from back alignments to blood glucose testing to the attorneys from the 12th Judicial District speaking to attendees about abuse and how to help someone who's being abused.

Attendees of the health fair also got hands-on demonstrations from keynote speaker Rene Sepulveda, an elite personal trainer from ClubSport in Northern California, who gave four sessions about different types of exercises for all age groups.

"We made it a little bit different in our second year," Baca said. "One of our goals was instead of just coming and picking up materials, we made it an active participation fair where there were events such as the Health Jeopardy and the Wheel of Portion where participants could test their knowledge of health and wellness before they visited with the experts. People were really surprised at the answers that they didn't know, so it was real big hit at the fair."

Another addition to NMSU-A's health fair was their first obstacle course, which saw 38 participants. Some participated in the obstacle course individually and others raced together as a family and some did the course with their young children.

"They just had a blast," Baca said. "The talk was that it was very challenging but they got a feel for how their health was at that point. They said they enjoyed it and found skills they wanted to work on."

Baca said one of NMSU-A's strategic goals is the importance of health and the university has made it a goal to host a health fair annually.

"We're just going to keep expanding on it," Baca said. "This one grew triple the size of what last year's was. We had more activities, participation and more involvement in activities. As we put it on each year, get your whole family involved. It's so awesome that you can go to one place and meet everybody you need to in order to work on your health and wellness."