Culver City Observer -

Every year in August community health centers celebrate National Health Center Week – this year it is from Sunday, August 7 through Saturday, August 13 with the theme of "Innovators in Community Health."

Westside Family Health Center, a community health center located in Santa Monica, will celebrate with two free, community-wide Health Fairs. The first will be on Tuesday, August 9 from 10 am to 2 pm at Virginia Avenue Park's Splash Pad Area, located at 2200 Virginia Avenue in Santa Monica. The second Health Fair will be on Wednesday, August 10 from 10 am to 2 pm at WFHC's West Los Angeles site, 11101 Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Activities will include healthy eating games and tutorials – complete with portion sizes in the form of flexible food models for the kids – nutrition lessons, body mass index (BMI) testing, blood pressure screening, glucose testing, Covered California information and enrollment help, information on WFHC services and programs, face painting, a photo booth, balloon animals and more.

WFHC will also provide healthy snacks and drinks to demonstrate alternatives to sugary or high calorie options and children have the chance to win prizes, such as backpacks with supplies. Representatives from Assemblymember Richard Bloom's office and Congressman Ted Lieu's office will be there, along with representatives from Teen Line and Western Los Angeles Dental Society.

National Health Center Week has been celebrated for more than 30 years because health centers provide "affordable, high quality, cost effective health care to medically vulnerable and underserved people" according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.

"Some don't realize that we still have people who are uninsured or who have insurance, but can't afford to use it," said Debra A. Farmer, President/Chief Executive Officer of WFHC. "Without community health centers, our uninsured, low-income and underinsured community members would have nowhere to go for primary health care and health education.

"WFHC's Health Fairs are a fun way to bring attention to what community health centers do while providing some great health education for the community," she continued.

Please join WFHC on August 9 or 10 and be sure to bring the family.