Daryl Lewis watched enthusiastically as people sought out help with their health and wellness Thursday on Wilkes-Barre Public Square.
“We formed this organization to work on wellness outcomes in the areas of health and wellness, financial wellbeing and community wellness,” said Lewis, the founder and president of Rising Tide Wellness.
The new nonprofit organized a wellness fair that attracted more than 50 health-focused groups set up around the square.
Rising Tide Wellness, which officially launched in December, plans to open an office in the Wilkes-Barre area soon.
Lewis comes to the endeavor with experience in the field. He has worked and volunteered with the Wilkes-Barre City Health Department and the NAACP and helped with programing before starting Rising Tide. Lewis also said he organized a few wellness fairs in the past.
Rising Tide started out with three employees and some volunteers. Lewis said that support from various organizations makes everything possible.
“We’ve received a lot of support, whether it was information or in the form of grants or sponsorship.” he said. “If it wasn’t for their support, their guidance, or maybe some of the work that I’ve been able to do with them in the past, we wouldn’t be able to bring people here … it can’t happen without their support.”
Rising Tide got even more help than expected for Thursday's event. Fifty vendors from across the region initially signed up for the event. The final tally was 58 vendors.
Those vendors came from different aspects of health and wellness including addiction rehabilitation centers, in-home elder care, health services from universities, food dignity organizations and more.
Larger organizations, including Geisinger and the Wilkes-Barre City Health Department, were also in attendance. Many of the vendors offered information about their organizations and even some activities to help both parents and children have a fun time.
Attendees received more than just informational handouts. They had a chance to see some helpful technology in action.
The Moses West Foundation, a nonprofit organization from Illinois focused on providing clean water to those in need, demonstrated its AWG 5000 machine. The machine takes vapor from the atmosphere and turns it into drinkable water.
Apollo Mondesir, the chief operations officer at the foundation and AWG Contracting, spoke about all of the different places that their machines have helped.
“We’ve brought these systems to Vieques, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, Jackson, Mississippi after the treatment plant failed, Flint Michigan …” he said. “And we’ve deployed these systems in places where people normally wouldn’t be able to get a water truck in …”
Vendors also used the fair as a way to spread awareness about their existence outside of specific programs.
Gloria Gates CARE, a Blair County-based organization that provides multiple health services in one place to people who may be uninsured or are on state insurance, noticed that some of their accounts were closer to the Wilkes-Barre area and wanted to make sure that attendees knew they existed for them.
“Right now we're in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Tyrone.” said Valerie Luther, the senior account executive at Gloriga Gates CARE. “We also have Berwick and Shickshinny so a lot of the people here go to Shickshinny right now.”
Some community members who attended the event were happy that the fair existed in their community.
“I’ve been in Wilkes-Barre for about a year so this is fairly new to me and this is my first experience in a fair like this,” said Alberto Rodriguez, who is originally from Bronx, N.Y. “I feel it is informative, is needed, and we’re socializing and networking and basically getting information from a lot of different sources.”
Lewis, Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown and Moses West, the CEO of the Moses West Foundation, spoke at the event. The group came together to speak about their positions at the event and to thank the community for taking the steps towards bettering their health and their communities.
Rising Tide Wellness has a Scranton wellness fair scheduled for June 26 and one planned for Hazleton as well.
More information about Rising Tide Wellness and the various vendors who were at the Wellness Fair can be found on the organization’s Facebook page.