Healthy futures

Health fair introduces kids to hospitals, health care

By DALE HOGG

Lying on the table in the hallway of Central Kansas Medical Center Wednesday afternoon was a set of pigs’ lungs hooked up to a respirator “breathing.”

“That’s gross,” one Great Bend sixth-grader said.

“That’s not gross, that’s cool,” another said.

The exchange was one of many as Great Bend sixth-grade students who took part in second and last day of the fourth CKMC Health Smarts health fair. CKMC invites kids from Unified School District 428, Holy Family School and Central Kansas Christian Academy. They take turns wandering the halls over two days.

“It’s really a great event,” said Mark Mingenback, the hospital’s executive director of marketing.

Mingenback said the youngsters visit for 15 minutes seven stations that touch on community health (such as the spread of communicable diseases), health and nutrition, the dangers of drugs and smoking, and the importance of exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

There is a a definite “cool” factor for the kids, he said. In addition to the pig lungs, there were other bodily organs the youngsters could touch, tapeworms, human blood, a brain, a gallbladder, as well as a chance to be physically active.

But, it is a win-win situation. “The teachers are all for this,” Mingenback said. Even though it takes the students out of class, it counts as a science lesson. Administrators at the schools have been very supportive.

“They always enjoy it,” said Jason Ingram, a sixth-grade teacher at Eisenhower Elementary School. “It’s a hands-on experience. They always get intrigued by this stuff.”

“I don’t think (the kids) usually see these kinds of things,” said Heidi Cabral, a sixth-grade instructor at Eisenhower. “I don’t think they knew what to expect.”

There are other messages CKMC personnel hope to get across as well.

“It exposes children to a hospital” in a non-threatening way, he said. “It is easy to be scared of a hospital.” The staff wants to overcome these apprehensions.

In addition, it might also help guide some career paths. “We are trying to create a mindset that may move some of these kids towards wanting to be in a health field.”