The Board of Health discussed planning efforts for its upcoming Wellness Fair, scheduled for Jan. 18.
“We have the building from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” said Director of Public Health Andrew Petty, referring to the Community Center where the event will be held.
Petty said the board had previously discussed holding the event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., allowing for two hours of cleanup time.
Renting the Community Center costs $200, which would come from the Board of Health’s budget, Petty said. There is also an additional cleaning fee, though the exact cost is currently unknown. “Obviously, we’ll have to deal with that as well,” he said.
“I’m just wanting to make sure that you have all phases of health,” Hazlett said of the vendors for the fair.
“I’m not really focused on all phases of health,” McMahon said.
“This is not just exercise and whatever,” Hazlett said. “That’s primarily what this is set up for,” McMahon added, noting that if Hazlett wanted an event with vendors focused on different topics, a separate one could be organized.
“I think we could do two different ones, and you could do cosmetic, dental, hand care, whatever… no one is going to stop at a table to talk to a dentist or to talk to a salon owner,” McMahon said.
Hazlett said she never mentioned those topics, but McMahon refuted this, saying she had at a previous meeting. “I talked about nutrition, I talked about healthcare,” Hazlett said, with McMahon adding that he is in talks with vendors from those categories.
Hazlett noted that at Sustainable Marblehead’s Sustainability Fair, held on Sept. 28, there was a table on recycling, one from the YMCA, and one from the Jewish Community Center (JCC). McMahon said the YMCA is expected to be at the Wellness Fair and that he has reached out to the JCC but has not yet heard back.
“I’m telling you what I envisioned on this, and you’re hijacking it,” McMahon said to Hazlett.
“The town has several models for this,” said board member Thomas Massaro. “We had a great one at the counseling center… the usual suspects get the same tables all the time… the community does this very well. If someone else were sponsoring it, we’d be there. We were at the [YMCA]… I think you’re splitting hairs. I think we’re okay,” Massaro said.
McMahon emphasized that physical health is connected to mental health and cited statistics on obesity and related health risks, such as diabetes and cardiovascular issues. “I’m trying to get people healthy,” McMahon said.
Massaro said that at the Board of Health’s table, or at a separate table, he would like there to be literature on Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic. “The country is about to go bankrupt over obesity drugs. We don’t know the long-term side effects of any of these,” he said.
McMahon noted that 66% of Ozempic’s sales and 90% of Wegovy’s sales are in the U.S. “I want to get people finding different activities in town,” he said, with Massaro agreeing, “We want to encourage non-pharmacological obesity treatment first.”
“I’m trying to find a variety of different activities to get people moving,” McMahon said.
“We need to be working together,” Petty said. “…Working together to better the community… the idea is to have a wellness fair. Let’s set some parameters of who we want there. We’re not going out to handpick these people. We’re going to tell the community that we would like Marblehead businesses to come to this event… let’s see who signs up… We need to work together.”
“Hopefully, there’s going to be a lot of people that represent all of the different organizations around Marblehead,” Petty said.
McMahon said he hopes to hold a raffle at the end of the fair, offering fitness- or exercise-related prizes, such as personal training sessions or a one-month gym membership. “It’s just contingent on showing up,” McMahon said.