Hundreds attend SAC Health Fair

SMOKEY POINT — The Stillaguamish Athletic Club’s fifth annual Health and Fitness Fair’s 21 vendors met with as many as 500 members of the public on Monday, Nov. 4.

SMOKEY POINT — The Stillaguamish Athletic Club’s fifth annual Health and Fitness Fair’s 21 vendors met with as many as 500 members of the public on Monday, Nov. 4.

Christina Carbajal, member specialist and program director for the Stillaguamish Athletic Club, explained that the fair aimed to showcase businesses and products intended to enhance health and wellness, as part of the club’s overall mission of health and wellness.

“It’s a way of giving back to community members and the local businesses who purpose is to enhance their healthy lifestyles,” Carbajal said. “It’s an outlet that allows everyone to meet a lot of new people.”

Rite-Aid even administered eight flu shots near the end of the day-long event, while the Arlington Fire Department was also invited to fit children for helmets and call for donations to their “Coats for Kids” drive.

“We have a number of needy families in the area who can’t afford something as simple and necessary as winter coats, so for a while, people were pitching in their used coats,” Arlington firefighter Wayne Mitchell said. “We wanted to take that a step further, so now we’re collecting brand new coats so that local kids can get quality jackets rather than just hand-me-downs.”

Mitchell and his fellow Arlington firefighters believe that new coats inspire higher self-esteem in children, and help keep them in school throughout the winter months, while also freeing up tight family resources.

For donate, log onto www.operationwarm.org/arlington, or text “WARM” to 50555.

Marysville’s Matthew Gonzales and Chelsey Roe-Gonzales touted the gains in health and self-esteem that they’ve made through “Take Shape For Life,” for which they now both serve as certified health coaches.

“From April of 2009, I lost 116 pounds within a year,” Chelsey Roe-Gonzales said. “Focusing on weight loss issues is just the first step, though, in letting you realize that you can reach your goals of getting healthy.”

Matthew Gonzales confessed that he waited for more than a year after his wife’s weight loss to follow suit, but once he did, he dropped 173 pounds — half his body weight — between September of 2011 and August of 2012.

“It’s a total approach of healthy bodies, healthy minds and healthy finances,” Matthew Gonzales said. “When I lost that weight, I noticed that I was sleeping better and leading a healthier lifestyle. It’s all about supporting you through the transition.”

“It’s about the symptoms that aren’t being dealt with,” Chelsey Roe-Gonzales said. “And we’re about paying it forward, so there’s no charge for our services.”

You can find out more about the Gonzaleses online at http://healthrevolution4u.tsfl.com.

Dr. Devin Brossard’s Symmetry Chiropractic Wellness Center has been operating out of Smokey Point for the past year and a half, and she and her daughter Lexi attended the Health and Fitness Fair to demonstrate their heat-sensitive diagnostic equipment.

“We’re actually looking to open a new clinic soon, just because we’re growing out of the old one,” Devin Brossard said, as she demonstrated her equipment on Lexi. “This sensor measures the heat of your nerves under your skin. People think that, just because they don’t see any problems in their spines, or they don’t feel any pain, that there’s no problem, but pain is usually the last issue to come up when you have a spinal problem. This heat sensor shows if there’s inflammation of the neck muscles or nerves, after which we can administer a stress survey.”

The Symmetry Chiropractic Wellness Center is located in Suite B-102 at 3710 168th St. NE in Arlington.

The Stillaguamish Athletic Club is located at 4417 172nd St. NE in Arlington. For more information, log onto www.sacfitlife.com.