There’s always much activity at the Brea Senior Center, 500 S. Sievers Ave., and this Friday, Sept. 22, will be no different.
From 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the center will host Brea’s annual Health Fair & Flu Clinic. This is the health fair’s 24th year, and some 400 to 500 people are expected to attend.
“To get a free flu shot, individuals only need to show their insurance cards,” said Rebecca Matta, program manager with the Community Services Department/Brea Senior Center. “No proof of age is needed.”
The health fair has come a long way since the early days, when it was just a flu shot clinic, according Matta. Shingles and pneumonia vaccines will also be offered.
While the health fair is not just for seniors, many of the health screenings and vendors’ services and products are geared toward older residents.
Something always very popular is a free year’s supply of Omega-3 Fish Oil supplements. Andrew Kim, owner of Spoonful Corporation, donates them for the health fair every year.
Besides health screenings, attendees can receive a lot of health and welfare information and even free samples and goodies from many of the 53 vendors with booths at the health fair.
Booths will be located in both senior center buildings and on the covered patio between them. I can’t list them all of them, but some of the vendors include HICAP, St. Jude Wellness Center, Braille Institute, the Orange County Council on Aging, local dentists, senior home care providers, various health plan representatives, Medicare information, spine specialists, eye care providers, senior living facilities, restaurants that feature healthy meals, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute located at Cal State University Fullerton and even places to tone you up, including Nifty After Fifty and the new UFC GYM Brea, plus many other businesses catering to seniors.
The Brea Health Fair is definitely the place to get those fall vaccinations and lots of information on staying healthy.
Another way the Brea Senior Center promotes healthy living is with its Senior Grocery Program. The center partners with Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, which delivers a large truckload of fresh, frozen, packaged and canned foods, even milk and eggs, to the senior center the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, serving approximately 175 households.
I stopped by last visit to see how the program worked. I learned it works quite smoothly, thanks to the efforts of the Brea Senior Center personnel and several volunteers, including VIPS or Volunteers in Police Service, members. Those volunteers were busy filling tables around the main room of the senior center with all the food for folks to take.
Matta said the food is not just for seniors, but you must be an Orange County resident. She also noted that Second Harvest supplies groceries for all of the senior centers in the county. Usually attendees are limited to filling one grocery bag, but on the day I visited, there was enough food that they could fill another bag or two.
Everyone brings their own bags or small, wheeled grocery carts. Only one person per family can shop and that person is given a number between 1 and 10. The numbers are called in random order, and 10 people with the same number make their way around the tables, collecting what they want. What a great, budget-saving program for our seniors. The next grocery giveaway day is Sept. 26.
Terri Daxon is a freelance writer and the owner of Daxon Marketing Communications. She gives her perspective on Brea issues twice a month. Contact her at daxoncomm@gmail.com.
