The Community Health Center of Branch County recently held their annual Community Fest at Heritage Park in Coldwater. The event was June 26 and coincided with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. Community Fest is an annual event that provides participants with information on health and safety. In addition, Community Fest also featured free health screenings as well as activities for kids.

Over 600 people came to Community Fest with CHC Dietary serving 571 people lunch in a two hour span. Community Fest featured 37 exhibitors that were on hand to give information on a variety of topics. CHC also offered a chance for participants to get health screenings for free, with over 120 people taking advantage. For the kids, CHC had a kid’s corner that included a place to color and also had a station set up to show kids the importance of good hand washing. Also for the kids, Steve Franks, State Farm agent, sponsored and held a bike rodeo that helped kids understand bike safety. With the bike rodeo, CHC fitted and gave away 118 bike helmets to children. The Coldwater Fire Department had one of their fire trucks on site and taught kids about the features of the truck and how they help with emergencies. The Quincy Fire Department brought the Smokehouse, which taught kids what to do in case of a fire by simulating a fire in the house.

CHC was very fortunate to have great sponsors for this year’s Community Fest. Among the sponsors, Emergency Physicians Medical Group, PC was the health screening sponsor and Health Plan of Michigan and Great Lakes Health Plan were supporting sponsors. Many companies also stepped in and helped CHC provide food and water for participants. Sponsors that helped with food and water included Frito Lay, McDonalds, Pepsi, and Gordon’s Culligan. Without the help of our sponsors, Community Fest wouldn’t have been as successful.