When Sharon Feldman, office manager for Wesley Freedom United Methodist Church, attended the forum about human trafficking held by the church in 2012, the message about the importance of educating women in the fight against trafficking resonated with her.
"I've always felt passionately about it," Feldman said. "Education is such an important part in the battle against human trafficking; if women are educated they are less likely to be trafficked."
She decided to follow up this seminar with another event, one which would teach the community about health concerns and act as a fundraiser to support missionary efforts to educate globally.
Wesley Freedom will be holding the inaugural Creating the Best You! Mind, Body, Spirit event at the church from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. May 17 and will feature a wide variety of activities, including classes on healthy cooking, gardening, financial literacy and different crafts, along with presentations on obesity, diabetes, stroke education, palliative care and cancer, seated massages, acupuncture, a self-defense expo, exercise displays by Merritt Athletic Club, and a unique market place with different local vendors that all sell used, recycled, or re-purposed goods.
The church will charge $25 per vendor registration and will be accepting them until May 12. Tickets will cost $6. All money raised from ticket sales and vendor fees will go towards growing and improving the church's missionary efforts to educate around the world.
"Human trafficking is such a big issue, with many facets like caring for rescued women and education," Feldman said. "The church felt that raising funds to support the education of women and children would be the best way to fight it."
Feldman invited the Carroll Hospital Center to participate, and they will be using a survey conducted in 2012 by A Partnership for a Healthier Carroll County as the basis for the event. The survey identified seven focus areas that were key health issues in Carroll County: obesity; diabetes; heart disease; mental health; cancer; lack of exercise; and substance abuse.
Ann Boyles, health-care navigator and community educator for the hospital as well as a registered nurse, said that one of the hospital's main purposes is community outreach and education.
"We like to go out and educate the community when we are invited to do so; whenever there are opportunities we like to take advantage of those," she said.
In addition to the health presentations, acupuncture and massages, Boyles said the Hospital will be conducting blood pressure screening tests, and the keynote speaker at the event is Dr. Dona Hobart, the director of the hospital's Center for Breast Health, who will be leading a seminar on breast cancer awareness.
"We like to not only go out and educate the public about health awareness but also make them aware of the resources here at the hospital," she said.
Feldman said that since this is their first attempt at holding an event of this size and diversity, it is difficult to know what to expect, particularly concerning community support and turnout.
"I'd love to see this become an annual event and see it grow to include more vendors and larger support," Feldman said.
Robin Jeng, owner of Strive for Five Health & Fitness Studio and a co-planner of the event, said that the church's aim is to target women and children, but she stressed that the topics that will be discussed affect everyone.
"We want to target women, youth, seniors, minorities, really anyone, so they know that they can get help and they deserve it," Jeng said.
Jeng also said their efforts to educate the community with this event have been enormous but their goal is nothing less than the elimination of human trafficking, which is as destructive as it is secretive.
"We are trying to impact our community and the world with this," Jeng said. "We want to make a difference."
