Springfield City Library hosts community health fair

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Springfield City Library held a community health fair on Wednesday.

The Mason Square branch of the Springfield City Library held its first-ever community health fair, and it was a great success.

“It’s really a great resource for people who want to keep Springfield healthy,” said Elizabeth McKinstry, Training and Programming Librarian at Springfield City Library.

Rachel Gravel, Manager of Adult & Youth Information Services at Springfield City Library said, “We had such a positive response, people reached out to us to see if they can participate.”

Over a dozen different organizations around the area set up tables with more information about how they specifically help the community.

McKinstry explained the event Wednesday as, “an opportunity for the people who live in Springfield to come and get information about resources of all kinds all in the same place.”

The fair was also beneficial for organizations to network with each other so they understand what they each offer to the community. Whether there was a table at the event specific to what you are looking for or not, the information available is important to the community.

“I think it’s really important for us to support each other in Springfield, in health. Even if there isn’t something for me here, I’m learning organizations here that can help my friends and neighbors and people that I serve at the library,” said McKinstry.

Besides all of these local organizations, there is also one organization that travels across the United States for medical research purposes.

All of Us Research Programs is an organization with a goal of changing how health research is done.

Gravel clarified, “Historically, research has been based on white males and their medical data. so this aims to bring in more people into that data set so medical research can be more inclusive.”

All of Us uses the data they receive to research people of different colors or backgrounds to look for ways to improve medical treatments, outcomes, and even prevention

The All of Us truck will be in the Mason Square Branch library parking lot Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday before it continues traveling around the country.

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