By Kathianne Boniello
Keeping teenagers healthy and happy will be the focus of Benjamin Cardozo High School’s health fair next week, where more than 30 community groups were expected to offer information on a range of issues to students at the Bayside school.
Eric Levine, a health teacher at Cardozo and one of the organizers of the Fit for Life Wellness Fair, said the event was a way to educate students, staff and parents about health resources available in the community.
“I think it’s important that they get a knowledge of the different resources that are out there. A lot of them don’t know where to go,” he said.
Next week students can go the school’s gym, where more than 30 groups will make health information available, Levine said, including nursing students from nearby Queensborough Community College, SPARK, Cardozo’s drug prevention program and the AIDS Center of Queens. Levine said information on asthma, cancer, depression, and smoking will also be available during the fair.
Levine pointed out the significance of providing information on mental health issues like depression.
“Mental health is so important to overall health,” Levine said. “If a person is happy, it goes a long way to their physical health.”
Cardozo Principal Rick Hallman said informing students about health issues and resources is “part of our job.”
“There are a lot of very good organizations and very good people who are here to help,” he said. “This will give them the confidence that they can get the information they need.”
Tuesday’s event will continue the success of the 2001 health fair, the school’s first.
“Last year the fair went really well,” said Levine, who organized the event with fellow health teacher Yolanda Roth and Assistant Principal Elaine Ruben. “Now we can build on it and make it even better.”
Levine and Hallman said the health fair was as much for Cardozo’s students and parents as it was for the staff.
Last year, Hallman said, “as word got around it was fascinating to see how the staff turned out.”
The event was to be held Tuesday, April 30, in the Cardozo gym from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
