Mobile Women’s Health Fair doesn’t slow down participants
Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher
By Carlton Fletcher
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ALBANY — Darrell Sabbs sank down into the seat of his pickup, leaning on the open window of the open truck door.
“Wow,” he said, and his amazement was genuine. “I never expected anything like this. We’re 30 minutes in, and look at all these cars.”
Sabbs, the Phoebe Putney Health System community benefits coordinator, was looking at a more than mile-long convoy that wound around the tennis courts on the Albany State University West Campus, continued through the parking lot in front of the campus’s student center, filled a line in the road between the campus and the Albany Museum of Art, and at one point was backed up 30 to 40 cars deep onto Gillionville Road, which runs in front of the campus.
“Oh, my God, now I’m worried that we’ll run out of stuff,” Sabbs moaned. “I just never expected this.”
The occupants of the vehicles came to be a part of Phoebe’s 15th annual Women’s Health Clinic, which because of COVID-19-related restrictions, was a drive-thru event. That little change in routine did not stop area residents from showing up.
“I think this response speaks to the desire of people in our community to get the latest health-related information,” Sabbs said. “It’s encouraging from a health care standpoint to see people more mindful of taking care of their own health, of changing their lifestyles to the realities of this time. These folks are hungry for information.
“And while we can’t physically touch them (for usual health screenings) as we’ve done in the past, we can touch them with caring and love. These folks have been through trauma, with COVID and the national economy. There is a desire to use all means possible to improve their own lives.”
The participants, who never left their vehicle, received packets of health care information, T-shirts and masks, flu shots and boxes of food during the health fair. Each vehicle was met by eager volunteers, from Albany State University athletes to Phoebe staff and supporters to health care providers from throughout the region.
“This is just fabulous,” cancer survivor/volunteer Mona McCoy, whom Sabbs called the “grand marshal of this parade,” said as she helped direct drivers on the path to the goodies. “There was some concern (about response) with the shift to a drive-thru event, but our community did not let COVID stop them. It’s so important that people get all the health care information they can to take care of themselves and their families.”
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