Community health fair in Tarentum offers up bike helmets, jobs and more
A community health fair on Saturday in Tarentum provided much more than medical testing and pamphlets.
About 50 booths lined First Avenue with the road blocked from traffic from Lock Street to Corbet Street.
The region’s two major health systems, Allegheny Health Network and UPMC, were on hand with UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh giving out free bicycle helmets.
But this was not your typical health fair.
In addition to health services, several labor unions set up booths canvassing for employees. The Pennsylvania Game Commission handed out materials on illegal poaching and harboring of native animals. The Friends of the Riverfront gave out free maps of its networks’ trails along the Allegheny Rivers and elsewhere.
The diversity of services and information offered was by design, said Rep. Carrie Lewis DelRosso, R-Oakmont, who sponsored and coordinated the event.
“The event covers career, health and wellness,” DelRosso said.
“We are an old neighborhood here, and this is an opportunity zone with everything,” she said.
Emma Kozlowski, 2, of Tarentum, was outfitted with a free, toddler-size bike helmet. Her mother, Alexis, also brought her other daughter, Olivia, and liked the resources offered to the public. “It’s awesome to get a free biking helmet.”
Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 12 as well as other unions were looking for prospective employees.
“We have a good chance to meet people who live here for work,” said Joshua Moore, who represented the sheet metal workers union. The wage for a first-year apprentice is $22.36 an hour with full benefits, and journeymen earn $38.76 an hour, Moore said.
Educational institutions were represented by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Citizens School of Nursing at the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer. Marcia Cook, AHN’s director of schools of nursing and nursing research, said that 97% of their students pass their state boards for certification.
DelRosso was hoping for about 200 visitors, and by early afternoon Saturday, it looked as though the number of visitors would exceed that.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.