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As I was doing this post last night, something happened and only part of my
summary made it through. So I am repeating it as best I can remember:
About a month ago I posted our plans for raising public awareness by doing
a local county fair and then a health fair. My thanks go the many
companies who provided us with either literature about their products, or
even sent samples of their products.
We had one day at the local fair. I really had no idea what to expect, but
I figured people would walk past us and not pay too much attention. Well,
was I ever wrong!! In the short span of about 7 hours, we had hundreds
upon hundreds of people stopping to talk to us. They were standing 3, 4,
and 5 deep to get to us!! There was three, and sometimes four, of us
manning this table, and we were all kept busy. One lady also had to give
a 30 minute talk on celiac disease at another location, and many came to
listen to her. Some stopped us afterwards to ask questions. We heard
many stories, some amusing, some sad, and some really weird!
We had baked up about 18 dozen snickerdoodles, thanks to the Gluten-Free
Pantry, along with 3 batches of their brownies. Most of these were gone
before noon. We had many other samples and these also did not last
long. A nearby table was providing milk and cookies to fair goers, but
they thought our cookies far surpassed theirs. The volunteers kept
snacking on OUR cookies.
I had mentioned in my earlier post about one gentleman in our group with
CD who owns an advertising company and jumped in to help us. He printed
up an 8 foot banner and had a DVD put together narrating celiac disease
along with some awesome graphics. This was running constantly on a 24
inch wide flat screen monitor. It really caught the eye. He also printed
up 500 recipe booklets for us to hand out. He did this all with just
about 6 weeks notice. He wants to send each supplier a DVD to see how we
promoted their products.
Also on display were the many mainstream items you can purchase at any
grocery store. Along with this, we displayed many gluten free products that
were supplied to us. We found that some were unaware of what was really
out there and this display helped tremendously.
We handed out hundreds of brochures, and hopefully these organizations will
again provide them next year. It was difficult to get as many as I needed
with some of them as the cost was out of my own pocket, making this
difficult on a fixed retirement income. Next year we have arranged to be
at a larger fair for 7 days! This will be awesome, but will require a LOT
of brochures and information. We will have to start now to work towards
that goal.
One fair goer, a pediatrician, stopped to pick up brochures and mentioned
that celiac disease was being tested for in their practice. That was a
plus!!
Our next public awareness program is next week on the radio. We get 30
minutes to discuss CD and take phone calls. This will be our fifth time
doing this over the past two years. We really don’t get the phone calls,
but we continue discussing CD, the strides being made, and what our support
group does.
On November 1, we will finish up with a local health fair. I believe that
after last week, there are many more people in this area who are now aware
of celiac disease and what it means. With all the symptoms listed on our
banner, the majority of people were picking out the ones that bothered
them. So now the ones who truly believe they have unresolved problems
have the knowledge to go to their physician and ask for testing. And that
makes us feel like our day there was absolutely worthwhile!
Bev Messner
Richland County Celiac Support Group
Mansfield, Ohio
* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *
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