Senior Health Fair deemed wonderful

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Sarah Gentil, left, a chiropractor’s assistant at Arbor Vitae Chiropractic in Bentonville, talks with Tim Pschierer, proprietor of Bella Vista-based Green Ninja Taxi, during the Senior Health Fair.
Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Sarah Gentil, left, a chiropractor’s assistant at Arbor Vitae Chiropractic in Bentonville, talks with Tim Pschierer, proprietor of Bella Vista-based Green Ninja Taxi, during the Senior Health Fair.

Riordan Hall was packed with vendors and visitors, including Bella Vistans, people from nearby and the occasional out-of-state resident visiting Northwest Arkansas during last Thursday's Senior Health Fair.

Businesses present included health care providers, law firms, assisted-living complexes and others providing goods and services geared toward seniors. Those businesses also offered some basic services at the fair, including hearing tests, vision tests and general advice.

Reta Wilkins, office manager with Gravette Eye Clinic, said she came because her clinic sees a fair number of customers from Bella Vista.

She answered questions about glasses, she said, and helped where possible.

"It's actually good advertising and a good way to meet people," she said of the event.

Nancy Foster, part of Captel's outreach division, was also on scene. The company, she said, provides captioned telephones for the hearing impaired.

"Seniors are probably my best market and Bella Vista has a good, active senior community," she said.

The phones, she said, are often free with certified hearing loss, funded by money from the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It's rewarding, she said, to be able to help people communicate.

Barbara Ryan, an administrator with Brookfield assisted living, said this was an excellent opportunity to talk with people about assisted-living services. It gets her company's name out there, she said, and helps to promote awareness of the industry as a whole.

It also gives her chances to see familiar faces, she said.

"It's just a great community event," she said.

Just outside the front door, Sarah Gentil, a chiropractor's assistant with Arbor Vitae Chiropractic in Bentonville, was screening people's necks for nerve interference.

"We're using our state-of-the-art technology to locate any of those interferences," she said.

These can be caused by physical, emotional or chemical stresses, she said, and can result in a wide array of symptoms, including migraines, loss of sleep and anxiety.

"You name it, we've seen it," she said.

The guests were about as varied as the vendors, often winding through the tables to talk with various people about their services and take advantage of the various screenings and grab the occasional snack.

Among them was Bella Vista resident Lorana Stay, who walked through the ballroom before sitting down for a hot dog outside Riordan Hall.

She's been coming for the past five years, she said, and gets her flu shot every year during the health fair.

"I think it's a wonderful place," she said. "We get our flu shot, we get our blood pressure checked, our sugar checked. ... I think it's a wonderful offer."

General News on 09/20/2017