HOLLA! Development Center and NC Black Alliance are Rooted in Wellness

MORVEN — Teaming up with North Carolina Black Alliance, HOLLA! Community Development Center has done it again, holding another successful health, wellness and voter information event; the Rooted in Wellness Health Fair.

The fair was part of the Black Alliance’s state-wide event which was held in several counties across North Carolina Saturday.

Lorenzo Steele, known locally for his Behind These Prison Walls mobile crime history museum, shared voting information with attendees. Citizens could pick up literature concisely informing them on where candidates running for office stand on important issues.

Habitat for Humanity provided visual images for attendees of homes the group has either torn down and rebuilt or renovated to make the home more comfortable for those whose hearts reside there. The non-profit group seeks to help people apply for loans and give existing homeowners a quality home to maintain.

Mary Spell, with Trillium Behavioral Services, made sure attendees heard about Trillium’s 5 County Collaboration and other healthcare services and plans they provide. The 5 County Collaboration program consists of virtual meetings held on the second Friday of each month from 9:30-10:30 a.m. with Anson, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore and Richmond Counties.

Brittany Hardin with Livefreely247 is all about health and wellness.

“We promote healthy lifestyles, healthy habits and supplements. We want to get to know you, where you want to go and what your health goals are. Then, we offer tailor made-plans to help you stay on track,” Hardin said.

Shonta Gause of Carolina Complete Health, came out to HOLLA! to inform people of all the services they provide their members, including domestic violence assistance, tutoring services, housing assistance and free transportation to places like the pharmacy or the doctor’s office. Often a familiar face at health fairs in the county, Christina Aguilar from Atrium Health came out because she wants citizens to know they are more than just emergency care providers.

“We offer primary care, diabetes and mental health services. We also have a specialty clinic where we have orthopedic care and a surgeon that also comes in and is available,” Aguliar said.

Aguilar said Atrium Health also has a mobile unit that comes out to Food Lion and offers gynecology service, among other health resources once a month. Alison Ayun-Agualo helps people navigate the healthcare industry- what healthcare plans are best based on individual healthcare and financial needs.

“We really want to get people connected to affordable care in their area. I help to educate people on how to use health insurance, how to make their plan work for them,” Ayun-Agulao said.

New business owner Rachel Melton showcased products from her company – Her Blackness. Melton offers shirts featuring her business logo, which pays homage to every town in the county. In addition to her creative shirts, Melton offers a range of body butters, pain relief cream and some hair care products. So far, two of her most popular products have been her Mango Body Butter and Love Don’t Be Shy Body Butter. Both butters are thick and creamy, contain raw organic shea oil, castor oil and fragrance oils. In particular, the Love Don’t Be Shy Body Butter has a sweet fragrance that will last on the skin while it moisturizes for hours. Melton’s Pain Reliever cream is chalked full of good stuff; raw shea butter, eucalyptus, nettle, comfrey and castor oils. Melton is working on getting her website up and running, www.herblackness.com, but she is available for orders through her Facebook page – Her Blackness.

Verdant Julius, who is with Black Alliance, was proud to be taking part in the group’s state-wide fair.

”We want to build safer communities by focusing on and hi-lighting the work we do keeping the public informed. We want to work off the power of the people,” Julius said.

He added that doing these type of fairs across the state is important so that communities are informed and know the resources that are available to them.

Leon Gatewood, who founded HOLLA! Development Center agrees. He started HOLLA!, which stands for Helping Our Loved Ones Learn and Achieve, because he saw a need in the county for children struggling with literacy. Initially working to combat illiteracy, Gatewood soon discovered greater needs in the county and immediately began building partnerships and applying for grants to start fulfilling those needs. Now, HOLLA! Development Center has become not only a place of refuge and fellowship for the community, it is a haven for children to get the tutoring they need, learn tennis, Tae Kwon Do, and so much more, all at no charge.

“Today has been a great day. We [HOLLA! Development Center] were honored to partner with the NC Black Alliance, to be selected as a host site. This is what we envisioned when we built the HOLLA! Center, we wanted to be serious about getting candidate information to voters, assisting voters to get registered and to focus on healthcare and other issues in the community,” Gatewood said.

Gatewood added that he appreciated the community outpouring of support for the event.

In keeping with the customs at HOLLA! Development Center, a large buffet of sugar-free healthy choice snacks were provided for all of Saturday’s guests, free of charge. Local baking artist Aaliyah Crawford, who co-led the summer’s Jr. Baking Camp with Chef Valencia Garmon, assisted some of the summer’s campers with catering the event.

“We had summer campers Angelina Ojada, Jeremiah Kirkley and Harper Bennett here, they helped with getting all this beautiful food ready today,” Crawford said.