Tricon hosts health fair to raise awareness

After being on an insurance committee at the end of the year, Stacy Conrow-Ververis of Tricon Timber in St. Regis noticed a lack of preventative care which resulted in a “spike” in the insurance rates.

As a result of being on the committee Conrow-Ververis and her team decided to create the first annual health fair for Tricon employees and their family members.

“We organized this event to create awareness and to educate our employees on preventative health and just diagnosing things early so they can get the treatment they need,” Conrow-Ververis said.

According to Conrow-Ververis, raising awareness for preventative care is a key factor in the health of the employees at Tricon and in that respect the event was a success before it even started.

“We had 75 of our employees take advantage of a blood draw at the mill,” Conrow-Ververis said. “The hospital (Mineral Community Hospital) came and did that and between 10 and 15 of those people were diagnosed with the need to make further appointments with doctors. So we have already been successful even if we don’t get anybody here.”

The event was a success in terms of the number of attendees – many employees from Tricon headed to the St. Regis Community Center after their shifts were over on Friday and participated in a 2x4 throwing contest as well as a number of free classes such as first aid and nutrition.

Representatives from the Mineral County Health Department, Mineral Community Hospital, insurance providers and many other county organizations were also on hand at the fair to give attendees more practical information on preventative health care.

“It’s just about creating awareness for child safety, insurance and things like that,” Conrow-Ververis said.