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Loading...To celebrate its eighth anniversary, Mountain West Medical Center’s Healthy Woman program will hold a special event on April 27 at Tooele High School.
The event will include a health fair, several breakout sessions, lunch and a keynote speaker. The speaker, Lisa Smartt, is a motivational humorist from Dresden, Tenn. She travels nationally to speak to women and also writes a weekly newspaper column called “The Smartt View.”
Her message at the Healthy Woman event will be “Hope for women who can’t find their keys—confessions of an imperfect woman.”
Last year’s event featured Elizabeth Smart, who now works as an activist and contributor for ABC News, but first gained widespread attention at age 14 when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home and was found nine months later.
MWMC started the Healthy Woman program in April 2005 to help women understand health and life-balance issues.
“The program is for women between 25 and 65,” said Becky Trigg, director of marketing for the hospital and Healthy Woman coordinator. “It’s a resource sponsored by the hospital to help women be more informed about healthcare issues and to help them make wise decisions in healthcare needs. We always have an anniversary event each year. It’s been successful and it’s something women get excited about attending each year.”
Trigg said a few changes have been made to the event this year. Typically, the program is held on a Thursday evening, but this year’s program will take place on Saturday, April 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. From 9 a.m. until noon, there will be eight different breakout sessions for women to choose from.
“We’re trying something new,” said Trigg. “We’re going to have a variety of breakout sessions on a whole gamut of subjects to do with health. We’ll have everything from organizing your home and fad diets, to diabetes, depression and gardening.”
Trigg said there will also be a pediatrician and an obstetrician/gynecologist leading two of the breakout sessions.
“These are good sessions for young moms and for women who are thinking about getting pregnant,” she said.
During the breakout sessions, there will also be a health fair. Trigg said she recommends women choose two breakout sessions at which to attend, and then spend the other hour visiting the health fair.
“In conjunction with the breakout sessions, we will have a health fair with a variety of booths of information on various health topics,” said Trigg. “There will be booths on things like finances, jewelry and self-defense. It’s going to be more like a women’s expo.”
At noon, lunch will be served. Around 12:45 p.m., Smartt is scheduled to begin her keynote speech. The event will end around 2 p.m. with door prizes.
Trigg said the advisory council for the Healthy Woman program, which consists of Tooele County women from all walks of life, plans the event each year. The advisory board consists of the following 14 women: Susan Cummings, Shelly Taylor, Lori Jensen, Jennifer Bastian, Sherie Jaramillo, Jaimie Bryan, Mickey Falkner, Teresa McNeill, Abigail McNeill, Samara Lazernick, Megan Shutts-Karjolla, Debbie Winn and Kathy Boltz.
“They are kind of our eyes and ears for the hospital and women of the community,” said Trigg who also serves on the advisory board. “They’re very beneficial because they plan the events around what the needs of the community are, and what women want to talk about and learn about.”
Trigg said the purpose of the Healthy Woman event is to target different health needs of women in the county. She said it also gives women a chance to get out and socialize with each other.
“They get a chance to get out and talk about women stuff,” said Trigg. “They get to actually meet different people they might have something in common with and have a day out where they can relax and enjoy what they like to hear about.”
Tickets for the April 27 event are $20 each and can be purchased at MWMC or online at www.mountainwestmc.com. Tickets will remain on sale until April 19 or until the event is sold out, whichever comes first. So far, around 60 tickets have been sold. The event will be sold out once 450 tickets are gone.
“This year we’re capping off the number at 450 attendees because we’re going to just have the event all on the first floor of the high school,” Trigg said. “In the past we would allow more women to come, but we really want to focus on just the women of Tooele County. Last year we brought a lot of women from Salt Lake and Utah counties here, but the purpose of the program is to let the women of Tooele County know what resources they have here at home.”
For more information on the program or to become a member, visit www.mountainwestmc.com and click on Healthy Woman.
