MLK Day health and wellness fair empowers people to take an active role in their health

For 15 years, the Martin Luther King Day of Service in the Philadelphia area has honored Dr. King by encouraging others to help make positive changes in the community. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that some 70,000 volunteers were taking part in about 1,000 projects in the region during this past Monday’s MLK Day celebration. About 3,000 volunteers alone were at various activities at what was the epicenter of this year’s celebration, Girard College, where Dr. King once gave a speech to civil rights marchers.

UnitedHealthcare and AmeriChoice, another UnitedHealth Group company, were proud to be at Girard College this past Monday sponsoring one of the largest of the projects celebrating King Day, a health and wellness fair that focused on showing how much fun adopting a healthy lifestyle can be.

More than 35 health organizations in total offered exhibits and health screenings at the fair, including dental, vision, and health screenings, cooking demonstrations, a blood drive and a fitness workshop. Information was available on a variety of topics including Sickle Cell Disease, healthy bones, and organ donation.

Besides sponsoring the Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service Health and Wellness Fair, AmeriChoice and UnitedHealthcare provided:
• Healthy activities such as line dancing and music to help encourage people to adopt an active lifestyle.
• Children’s Activities such as a carnival and organized physical fitness activities.
• “Rapping about Prevention,” a program that teaches children about nutrition and food.
• The opportunity for parents to enroll their children in CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) and learn more about free and low cost health insurance for children 19 years of age and under.

What do health and wellness have to do with Dr. King, you might ask? The answer: Quite a bit. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday offers an opportunity to remind all Americans and especially African-Americans that health and wellness are a critical part of social and economic justice. Through line dancing, music, rapping and other fun activities, UnitedHealthcare’s Health and Wellness Fair encouraged people to take an active role in their health. AmeriChoice and UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania’s will continue to remind the Pennsylvania community to adopt a healthy lifestyle through its year long program, "Moving to a Healthier Lifestyle. I’ll share some of the good ideas from this program with you in a future blog. Together, we can be healthier!