Sweet Medical Center celebrated National Health Center Week (August 12-18)

 

August 22, 2018

Mari Anne Skoyen chooses flowers from the fresh cut bouquets displayed by local gardener Ken Finley. Finely was selling cucumbers and cantaloupes during the first Sweet Market held Thursday evening, August 16. He was giving the flowers away at no charge.

Sweet Medical Center (SMC) kicked off 2018 National Health Center Week with the Sweet Swim! at the Chinook Pool on the Saturday before the special week long celebration. SMC organizers finished the week with a first ever Sweet Market on the parking lot of the clinic in Chinook on Thursday night. National Health Center Week recognizes the five decades that community health centers have been serving special populations across the country. Nationwide health centers like Sweet Medical Center serve 27 million patients.

Sweet Medical Center first opened in 1980 after completion of the present clinic in Chinook. The Blaine County Development Corporation constructed the clinic then sold the facility to the first providers who moved into the new treatment center. The original providers included the Havre Clinic (medical), Dr. Larry Obie (optometry), Dr. Tony Braunreiter (dentistry) and George Stebar (pharmacy). Dr. Obie has the distinction of being an original provider still offering care for nearly four decades.

The Sweet Swim! kicked off National Health Center Week. The free, family swim was held mid-day on Saturday, August 11. Nora Conner, Outreach and Community Coordinator for Sweet Medical, said nearly 80 locals turned out to enjoy a cool respite from a hot day. Part of the emphasis of the swim event was to encourage parents to get their students' sports physicals done before practices began this fall. This was the second year for the Sweet Swim!

The Sweet Farmers' and

Community Market was a first

The Sweet Market was held on the lawn and parking lot east of the clinic in Chinook. Nora Conner said she has long thought an open air market would "be a good thing for the town." She said while planning the event she hoped at least 15 vendors would be attracted to set up for the 5:30- 8:30pm event set for Thursday evening. There was no fee for vendors to have a sales space in the market.

Once the market was set up Conner said she believed she had 16 vendors and described that as, "A wonderful response from sellers." One disappointment was a scheduled food vendor who had to cancel at the last minute because of a medical problem in their family. Conner explained, "I thought having some prepared food available would keep people around to do more shopping and visiting. It was unfortunate that our scheduled vendor couldn't come because of their family problem."

There was plenty of variety among the sellers, ranging from children's clothing to fresh produce. The Turner Colony, a local gardener and a couple from Havre all had fresh produce for sale. There were artisans with homemade art, a massage therapist, Tupperware sales, organic skin care, health and nutrition products and even a local candidate for a county political office.

During the event Conner and others surveyed both the buyers and sellers to gauge their responses to the first market. Conner said, "We were looking to see how people liked the market, both buyers and sellers, and determine the best times to have future markets." Conner said she would like to see the market held at

least once a week in the evening during the summer. The survey showed, per Conner, "a very positive response from both sellers and buyers." And, for the time being the Thursday evening time and place seemed to be preferred.

I talked to several vendors and they echoed the findings of the survey. Carol McIntosh, who was selling fresh corn with her husband, Stu, said, "The crowd has been steady. I'm not sure if the number of shoppers will increase after the evening meal time but I'm pretty sure we'll sell out of corn before the market closes." McIntosh added that she thought the market was well publicized as she had seen information in several places about the time and location.

Sweet Swim! was the first event of Sweet Medical Center's celebration of 2018 National Health Center Week. The free, family swim was held at the Chinook City Pool and hosted by the Sweet Medical Center. Organizers said nearly 80 adults and children turned out for the mid-day swim event on a very warm Saturday.

A number of shoppers were carrying bags of fresh produce and other items they found at the market. Ken Finley, a local gardener in Chinook, was selling cucumbers and cantaloupe. He was also giving away fresh cut flowers from his garden. After purchasing some produce shopper Mari Anne Skoyen said of the flowers, "It's hard to beat fresh flowers for free. A nice bonus at the market."

What's next?

On Friday after the first market and having reviewed the survey results, SMC's Nora Conner said, "We have decided not to have a market next week but schedule one more for this season, most likely on a Thursday evening." She added that she felt like there was support both from sellers and buyers to start the market up next year on a regular schedule and, "the community seems ready for a market of this type." She's confident that as the word gets around more shoppers and vendors will be drawn to the market. Conner wants to schedule two food vendors for the last market, noting, "a food vendor at each end of the market would be a nice touch and appreciated by both shoppers and vendors."

Check the "Journal" for future announcements about the final market to be hosted by Sweet Medical Center this summer. If you would like to participate as a seller in the upcoming Sweet Markets, contact Nora Conner at 357-2294.

 
 

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