MCRD PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- The Depot held its annual Semper Fit Health Education Fair at the All- Weather Training Facility on Tuesday. The fair fulfilled annual health education training on drug prevention, alcohol awareness, sexually transmitted disease education, tobacco usage and suicide prevention.
“The fair has been an annual event for at least 10 years now,” said Kathy Williams, the health educator for Semper Fit, from Princeton, W. Va. “The point is to ensure every Marine is able to meet their annual health education requirements.”
At the health fair, Marines received cards with seven different topics on them, each being a different station that held pertinent information regarding their health and well-being.
Attendees sat through the informative meetings, and at each one, they got their cards initialed next to the topic. At the end of all the briefings Marines handed the cards in to obtain credit for completing the training.
“This training block gave Headquarters & Service Battalion Marines the opportunity to complete several health education training topics that are required to be completed annually,” said Capt. Eduardo Pinales, the Operations Officer at H&S Bn. “It gave them the flexibility to come to this training at a time that was most convenient for them, given their busy work schedules,” added Pinales, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
H&S Bn. Marines weren’t the only people attending the fair. Marines and sailors from the Depot attended the event.
While at the health fair, more than just basic training requirements were accomplished.
“It helped bring the Marines together,” said Cpl. James Caceres, the audit noncommissioned officer at the Installation Personnel Administrative Center.
“The Depot should have things like this more often,” added Caceres, from Miami.
Semper Fit was very flexible when it came to working with the Depot’s schedule in order to get the training accomplished, Pinales added.
For more information about future health related training, contact Semper Fit at 228-7010 or 228-7616. Marines who missed this mandatory training event will have a second chance when the fair moves to Marine Corps Air-Station Beaufort, Aug. 21.