Meridian Church Hosts Community Health Fair and Blood Drive

By Paul J. Prim Last updated Sep 18, 2022

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) – El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church held a community health fair and blood drive this Saturday.

The health fair and blood drive was held to honor a member of the church and to remind the public to always make their health a top priority.

There were several different organizations at the health fair giving information on oral care, behavioral health, and even administering COVID vaccines.

Christopher Barnes, the pastor of El Bethel Baptist Church, said it was extremely important to let people know what resources are available in the community.

“If I could use what God says, ‘we’re all in this together. We’ve always been in the same boat and having people coming together, working together to provide information and services, and that’s what we’re meant to be as Christians in Christ. We’re meant to be each other’s servants, so it’s just a pleasure to have other people serving people who need to be served in the community,” Barnes said.

The blood drive was in honor of fellow church member Tracey Lynn Dancy-Daniels, who died of complications from lupus.

“Tracey will be remembered by many as a teacher at Carver Middle School. She taught there for several years with Mr Markham. She developed lupus when she was 27. She needed a lot of blood during his illness and that’s why it was important to us to have the blood drive in his memory so that others going through the same thing can get the blood they need,” said Gloria Dancy, the Tracey’s mother.

A South East middle school student who attended the health fair said learning healthy habits early in life was vital.

“It’s important to learn about this because when you get older you will already have the knowledge to not do certain things and it will help you in life so people don’t have to go to the hospital to their health issues,” said Rekendra Heidelberg, a participant.

El Bethel Baptist Church has been hosting the Community Health Fair since the early 2000s, but stopped hosting the event due to COVID, so bringing the event back this year was very special for the family of the church.