New Haven Independent

The biggest attraction for kids at the Healthy Living Fair Haven health fair was a man creating amazing shapes from balloons, including a black and green spider to match the spider design on Luis Diaz’s T-shirt (pictured). For adults, there were more prosaic benefits, like free screenings for cholesterol and diabetes risk, and coupons to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at the aforementioned farmers’ market.

The fair was co-sponsored by GAVA, the Grand Avenue business association; Junta for Progressive Action; and City Seed, the sponsor of New Haven’s four farmers’ markets.

Gabriela Campos (pictured), executive director of GAVA, explained the collaboration.

“I’m from Peru, and back home we eat a lot healthier than people do here. We tend to eat fresh food more often. So I thought it was a good mix. And it’s grown into something, I think, much bigger than any of us anticipated as far as the level of participation.”

Anne Somsel, the director of health promotion at the Fair Haven Community Health Center said, “We’re doing body mass index screenings as well as diabetes risk screenings, to help people understand what their risk is for diabetes. We also have WIC [Women, Infants and Children], talking about the benefits of breast feeding.” She noted that August is breast feeding awareness month. WIC gives out coupons to participating moms so they can buy $15 worth of fruits and vegetables at the farmers’ markets, to complement the food they get from the program.

The Hospital of St. Raphael was represented by its Project Brotherhood program, a cancer prevention and outreach program for men. It’s holding a free prostate cancer screening at the hospital on Sept. 16. Registration is required and can be done by calling 867-5479. Midway through the four-hour fair, a woman staffing the St. Ray’s table said 20 people had stopped by to have their cholesterol tested.

At one end of the Quinnipiac River Park, yoga instructor Penny “Ramapriya” Crump was teaching half a dozen women and girls the finer points of yoga poses Downward-facing Dog and the Tree. (Crump is pictured demonstrating the Tree, while one of her students, below, does an admirable job of a slightly different version of the one-legged pose.)

Crump said she teaches in Dwight and is looking for a space to teach classes in Fair Haven.

This fair was an expanded version of one GAVA sponsored last year.