The Hillsborough County Council Parent Teacher Association (HCCPTA) is hosting a Community Health and Wellness Fair to inform the community of the options they have to care for themselves on Saturday, April 20, at Brandon High School.
Business Sponsorships Chair Debra Vanderveer said the HCCPTA wanted to ease the burden of finding affordable resources, especially with the rising costs of care.
“You can get your information or the resources that you need. They can send you in the right direction and, hopefully, it’ll ease some of the burdens that people have today,” she said.
The fair will help point people toward free resources offered by Hillsborough County so individuals and families are not paying unnecessary and costly bills.
“I want the people to walk out of that fair and say, ‘You know what? I didn’t know that resource was available to us. That’s going to make our life a lot easier,’” Vanderveer said.
The fair will host nonprofit organizations across Hillsborough County. Several organizations will give out free goodies, including ice pops, books, water and other donations.
This year, she hopes to host around 300 people. Students will also have the opportunity to volunteer and receive service hours.
During the event, Kona Ice will give out a free snow cone to anyone who brings a can of food for the Brandon High School Food Pantry.
This is the first Community Health and Wellness Fair hosted by the HCCPTA, which Vanderveer said has been a learning curve for the group of volunteers.
“We can only volunteer as much as our lives allow us and we just didn’t have the bandwidth to do it last year,” she explained.
Vanderveer said the commitment of the volunteers with the HCCPTA has helped make the grant-funded event possible this year.
“I’m already looking into next year and how we can make this grow,” she said.
The Hillsborough County Council PTA is a volunteer organization dedicated to supporting and strengthening PTAs and PTSAs across Hillsborough County. For more information on the Community Health and Wellness Fair or to learn more about the organization, visit www.hccptaptsa.org or its Facebook page.
