ILWACO — Blood pressure was tested, air helicopter service was promoted and there was even an opportunity for a massage.

The Ocean Beach Hospital and Medical Clinic’s annual community health festival had it all.

Breast health

Carea Kuhn, who has worked at Ilwaco for more than 11 years, has been performing mammograms since she was 19.

She has more than just professional reasons for encouraging breast health and the importance of early cancer detection strategies. Five years ago, she lost her mother, Carol Williams, to breast cancer.

Serendipitously, two days earlier a new “gentler” mammography machine had been delivered to the hospital’s radiology department and was on display for the first time.

The 3Dimensions machine is designed to make what some women call “the squish test” less painful.

“It’s the best,” said Kuhn. “It’s super comfortable, a softer mammogram, at last.”

Elsewhere, Lori Clardy, who works the front desk at the Naselle Clinic, was alongside nurse Tim Larson talking about plans to enhance the clinic.

They were busy promoting an annual wellness visit for patients who have had Medicare Part B insurance for more than a year. It consists of a health risk assessment to incorporate screening schedules and detect any cognitive impairment.

Good responses

Mental health was in the spotlight elsewhere, too. Staff from Willapa Behavioral Health were among those promoting services. Barbara Bate, a stalwart with Peace of Mind of Pacific County, an advocacy group, demonstrated a hand gesture pioneered by Dr. Dan Siegal as a better way of understanding brain disfunction.

““It’s been a good response,” said Bate, whose group works on suicide prevention and related issues.

Allison O’ Rourke, Wellspring coordinator, staffed a booth with Carole Chase of Pacific County Health, to promote the group’s efforts to boost the overall “wellness” of the community.

“We are getting good responses, but almost everyone we met did not know about Wellspring,” O’ Rourke said. “They helped fill out surveys to keep our funding. We are getting a lot of community engagement.”

They also highlighted a North County anti-drug program for youth, most notably in South Bend schools, called Road 2 Resiliency.

Business providers

As well as multiple departments in Ocean Beach Hospital, business providers like Heather Hall and colleagues from Peninsula Pharmacies were well represented, describing their services.

Pacific Integrated Martial Arts and Riverszen, a yoga studio, were among those promoting fitness and lifelong health practices. Also highlighting health education was Susan Carney from the Ilwaco Timberland Library.

Although a LifeFlight helicopter was unable to make a visit as in prior years, retired U.S. Coast Guard officer Dan Travers, a pilot and customer service manager with the company in Warrenton, was on hand to describe its services.

These include a reciprocal agreement with air ambulances in four Northwest states that allows potential patients to pay one annual insurance and have emergency flights covered.

Fun for the young

For younger visitors, the fun was both outdoors and inside. The opportunity to extinguish a small test fire set by Pacific County District No. 1 volunteer EMT/firefighter Richard Schatz produced squeals of laughter as youngsters took their turn learning how to work an extinguisher.

Inside the Ilwaco hospital, the face-painting station was popular. Nurse Colleen Tuell and her crew were kept busy with a steady line of young people eager to be adorned with their temporary artistic creations.

Sloane Oman, 6, daughter of Blair and Steve Oman, was thrilled by her impressive butterfly face, and Roger Davis, 3, son of Greg and Mary Davis, showed off a rather scary spider design.

It’s worth it

For organizer Tammie Jefferies, the hard work putting Saturday’s event together was worth it.

“It’s community education, and we like doing it,” she said, as a bustle of arrivals thronged the hospital corridors around her. “It is good that we can get the word out, increasing awareness about what kind of services we have in the community,” added Jeffries, executive assistant at the hospital. “We had an excellent turnout with more than 40 participants.”