Dayton health fair features free immunizations

The Dayton Task Force will host a free community health fair 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at the Community Roots nursery on Highway 50.

The fair will feature free immunizations for both children and adults, free blood pressure checks, and interactive booths offering education on diabetes, tobacco use cessation and prevention, gang prevention and awareness. The fair will also offer information on many other community groups, such as Dayton Task Force and Dayton Food Pantry, as well as health services in the Dayton region.

Children receiving immunizations must be with their parents and should bring shot records.

This year the fair will include free TDaP immunizations for both children ages 10 and older, and adults. The TDaP immunizations are funded through Carson City Health and Human Services in partnership with Community Health Nursing Clinics in Lyon County. Adults are encouraged to bring their shot records, but it is not mandatory.

Parents with children entering kindergarten next school year will be especially interested the immunizations being offered from 10 a.m.- noon by Community Health Nursing Clinics. Those include MMR (measles, mumps, rubella); IPV (inactivated polio vaccine); Varicella; and Hepatitis A and B.

The Dayton Task Force will also take requests for stepping stones that can be personalized with family, club or business names for the school garden paths at Dayton Elementary, Sutro Elementary, Riverview Elementary, and Dayton Intermediate School. Basalite Concrete made a generous donation of 100 stepping stones for this project to benefit local school gardens. For more information about how to order the stones, please call Sara Ross at 220-6955.

In addition, the nonprofit Community Roots nursery is hosting its big spring sale. Purchases at Community Roots, a partner of Healthy Communities Coalition, help support local school gardens, youth job skills development, and regional toy drives.

Dayton Task Force and Community Roots are partners of Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey, a private nonprofit. Local school gardens are funded, in part, through Healthy Communities and Community Roots. For more information, call 246-7550 or see www.healthycomm.org or www.facebook.com/healthycommunitiescoalition