Marbleheaders learned more about health and wellness on Saturday at the community’s first Wellness Day event, hosted by Tom McMahon, a member of the Board of Health, and Andrew Petty, the Health Director.
All walks of life joined together at the Marblehead Community Center to find out what’s been right at their fingertips in terms of wellness. From oral health to mental health to physical health, Wellness Day had it covered.
“Considering it’s the first one, so you don’t know what to expect,” McMahon said, “I think it was a pretty steady turnout the whole time, probably a little over 200 people.”
McMahon shared that many people left pleasantly surprised at the different businesses and organizations around Marblehead. He shared many people left saying, “Oh, I didn’t know this,” which is what he was hoping for, to inform the locals.
Out of the 28 vendors at the event, McMahon shared one that stood out to Marbleheaders: the acupuncture table.
“I heard a lot of people talking about the acupuncture table,” McMahon said, “Someone walked up to me and had like six of them in their ear.”
Eliza-Mellen Smith Acupuncture offered attendees acupuncture treatments to give them a taste of what it is. Using a combination of acupuncture, Chinese herbs, nutritional therapy, supplements, coaching, and various stress-reduction techniques, to help overcome nagging mental or physical health problems.
The raffles were another interest-drawing aspect of Wellness Day with prizes ranging from Bruins tickets to one-month free gym memberships. As opposed to placing tickets in individual buckets for their preferred raffle, McMahon and Petty had the idea of one big bucket for the raffles.
Locals placed their raffles in the bucket with the potential to win any of the prizes. McMahon has already picked the winners for each of the raffles and will be contacting them over the next few days.
Before the event, McMahon shared he hoped to have this event be annual each year with new and returning vendors. After the event, he believes that can be possible with the turnout from Saturday.
“I think it was well-received,” McMahon said, “I think people are enthusiastic about it, and I hope that’s enough to make it become an annual thing and only grow.”