Donned in Ladies Night at Winn t-shirts, 75 volunteers stepped up and stepped out to make the Winn Army Community Hospital first ever Ladies Night at Winn event a success. The event was held in the Liberty Wing of the hospital April 26.
Ladies Night Out at Winn was meant to be a community event to bring together the women of the Fort Stewart and local community to address health and wellness questions and concerns.
The liveliness was palpable throughout the second floor of the Liberty Wing as the "bartender" served healthy mocktails, and the DJ pumped up the crowd as they danced and mazed their way through vendors. On the first floor, a photo booth used for celebrities was heavily utilized, and the Zumba instructor helped the ladies burn off some calories.
"I would love to bottle that and have it in this building every day," US Army Medical Department Activity, Winn ACH Commander, Christopher Warner said. "The amount of just positive energy that was flowing throughout the hallways was phenomenal. And [it's] something we want to continue to look at; how we improve the environment of Winn on daily basis … so people can enjoy coming to Winn, so we can continue to encourage folks to get after their health and wellness."
Various local vendors who cater to women's needs were on hand, but more importantly Winn offered educational booths such as women's health, public health nursing, cancer screening and dermatology.
"This event allowed us to give health and education topics to more than 225 women," Warner said. "More than 60 women were able to receive their cervical cancer screening. Several women were able to have their breast cancer screening exams completed, and numerous of those in attendance were able to do cholesterol checks and blood pressure checks. Additionally we had our dermatologist on board to provide skin checks."
The outcome of one of the skin checks was the positive finding of melanoma on one of the attendees.
"We were able to provide and immediately begin initiation of treatment for skin cancer that would not have been otherwise identified until later," Warner said. "So we can say this event has immediately had an impact on helping save and improve lives."
The location of Ladies Night was crucial to the outcome for the attendees.
"So unlike our Baby Expo which we do at Club Stewart, this event was not only about our vendors or about education, but was about clinical intervention screening," Warner said. "It's a chance for us to highlight the facilities that are available to the community and help provide a better connection and increase the trust that we have between our patients, our population and the great facility we have here."
Second grade teacher, Patricia Martin said she came to the event on a whim after hearing about the event from a friend and said she enjoyed the friendliness and the atmosphere.
"I love it," Martin said about Ladies Night at Winn. "There was a lot of information that was given, the people are friendly and it was just fun and relaxing and I enjoyed every bit of it. I should have told some more people about it, but on the spot I decided to come and check things out and I am glad I did. It's a good crowd now, but I think next year, it's going to be even better. ..and it helps women in the community. I liked the music, the health screenings; I liked the breast cancer screenings--that is always important to get as a woman. I will definitely be back here next year."
Captain Veronica Waites-Moore, officer-in-charge of the North Troop Medical Clinic, and a vital part of the Ladies Night organizational team, voiced her gratitude for the event.
"We were able to celebrate women's health in a way that made everyone feel comfortable and we were able to catch some medical issues that we may not have been able to see if we didn't have this event," Waites-Moore said. "Saving one life, identifying one anomaly, touching one person's soul makes the event more than worth it!"
Waites-Moore expressed her appreciation for all of the willing volunteers. These were staff that gave their evenings, their time and hours to setup, tear down and continue to make the event a smooth operating procedure.
"Overall I am pleased with how Ladies Night turned out and look forward to many more years of making a special evening for ladies to check on their health and have a great time together," Waites-Moore said. "A big thanks to all that participated; ladies, vendors, providers, nursing staff, and volunteers."
After taking a proverbial knee for a week, planning is in the works for next year to make the Ladies Night at Winn event bigger and better.
"Our entire goal here is about a committed staff, providing high quality, safe, accessible care that you can trust," Warner said.
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