The Town of Newburgh held its first Health and Wellness Fair at Chadwick Lake Park under the pavilion on Tuesday, October 3. Local and regional health vendors and organizations offered materials, provided resources and connected with community members as they stopped at their tables.

Under the direction of Rebecca D’Addio from the Town of Newburgh Recreation Department, the event ran smoothly during the course of the late morning. The event was able to be held with comfortable weather conditions at the park.

“I’m very thrilled and excited about being able to do this. And I’m very happy that we’ve had such a good turnout. It’s our first annual wellness fair, and looking at the turnout, we’d like to do it every year,” said D’Addio. “I believe next year this will be even bigger.”

As the fair continued on, the majority of the crowd gathered at the park that afternoon were mainly senior citizens. With the senior population, D’Addio was glad to receive feedback from them on how great the event was and enjoyed the opportunity to offer this event for them.

“It’s really important to help get them the services and provide them with the access to the vendors that can provide the services for them,” she continued. “I don’t want them to be forgotten about, they are certainly a very important part of our society, and our community.”

Organizations in attendance for the fair included AARP, Alzheimer’s Association, Lizzy Care, Beltone Hearing Care Center, Restorix Health- Wound Care at Montefiore St. Luke’s Hospital, Innate Chiropractic, New Windsor Country Inn, Town of Newburgh EMS, Fishkill Endovascular, Jewish Family Service, Friends of Seniors and Health First.

Brooks Funeral Home, HEAP- Home Energy Assistance Program, RECAP, Always Compassionate Home Care, Dubois Law, Sue Nichols from the Orange County Office For the Aging, Somers Orthopaedic, Avoca Solutions, Montefiore St. Luke’s and Meals on Wheels also made an appearance in support of this event for the town.

“People are very happy with the variety of different organizations here, and being able to just, you know, talk to people and get information in a nice setting,” said Nichols. “I think the better educated you are about your health and your health condition, the more you need to speak to your doctors.”

“Anything we can do to help others, each other, is good,” said AARP Volunteer Nora Quinlan. “I think it [the fair] could get bigger, but it’s the first time; it’s pretty good.”

The town recreation staff thanked everyone for coming out to the first annual fair and hope to see visitors and vendors again next year and to see the fair grow bigger and better.