WestConn Holistic Health Fair

 Offers Healing Alternatives

DANBURY — Western Connecticut State University’s third annual Holistic Health Fair will be held on Saturday, April 9, with more than 30 practitioners of the healing arts gathering to demonstrate their wares to the public.

The event, from 10 am to 5 pm in the Bill Williams Gymnasium in Berkshire Hall on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White Street, can be described as a smorgasbord of healthy ideas and practices.

Exhibitors will provide workshops and demonstrations of acupuncture, aromatherapy, yoga, meditation, feng shui, massage therapy, and many other holistic health modalities, according to event co-coordinator Elaine Abrams, an adjunct in WestConn’s health promotion and exercise sciences department (HPX).

“We are hoping this will be our biggest success ever,” Ms Abrams said, noting that more than 200 people attended last year’s fair.

Ms Abrams is assisting Jeanette Tedesco, the interim president of the Danbury branch of the Connecticut Holistic Health Association (CHHA), which is presenting the event along with the WCSU Institute for Holistic Health Studies (IHHS) and the HPX department.

“The purpose of the fair is two-fold,” said Ms Abrams. “To promote the holistic institute and to develop a scholarship fund in conjunction with the institute for the students enrolled in the HPX department.”

Ms Abrams said interest in alternative healing practices and holistic health continues to grow, so much so the health department is considering offering a holistic health concentration.

“There seems to be a good amount of interest at the student level in holistic courses,” she said. “The fair’s sponsorship money — 100 percent — is going to student scholarships.”

The IHHS offers one-credit elective courses through the HPX department taught by holistic health practitioners from the greater Danbury community, including courses in meditation and energy therapy, Ms Abrams added. Some of those holistic health practitioners will be at the fair, she said.

Free demonstrations and workshops will be featured to nurture the mind, body, and spirit. In addition to the exhibitors’ tables, fairgoers can participate in free, one-hour workshops on feng shui, yoga and energization movement. One workshop that is particularly interesting is a meditation session focusing on relaxation techniques for elementary school children. The workshops will run from 10:30 am to 4 pm.

Waterbury Hospital and Topical Biomedics Inc are the event’s two major sponsors. Other sponsors include Take Time Relaxation Center, Webster Bank, Katonah, N.Y., Study Group, LOTUS at Waterbury Hospital, WestConn Office of Student Affairs, Associates in Kinleining, Patricia Hinkley, MA/RN, and the website relaxintoit.com.

General admission will be $5; senior citizens can get in for $1. WestConn students, faculty and alumni with valid ID will be admitted free. For more information, send an email to CHHADanbury@rcn.com or call 203-753-0868.