The Observer, July, 2008

Alyeska brings health fair to remote communities

By Ruth Black
Communications Manager, Valdez Terminal

The goal of the Prince William Sound Traveling Health and Safety Fair and Events is simple: Trans-Alaska Pipeline System employees and health care volunteers visit some of the region’s most remote communities to deliver health and safety messages and lessons to the people who live there.

For one week, volunteers travel by boat throughout the Sound, visiting with children, elders, and community leaders, staging educational assemblies and informative meetings, and offering services such as mammograms, blood pressure and diabetic screenings, and lessons in everything from emergency preparedness to dental hygiene.

Each year Alyeska employees look forward to this opportunity to provide health and safety programs to the communities and villages in Prince William Sound. 2008 marked the eighth year that Alyeska has sponsored this unique community event.

The fair’s theme this year was called Celebrate Life with the three P’s: prevent, protect, and plan. Activities included a women’s tea, where women discussed domestic violence, wrote songs and beaded bracelets; a breakfast for fathers to discuss healthy relationships; school assemblies for children; and, in each of the three communities, a health and safety fair with various booths geared toward physical and mental health and general safety and emergency preparedness instruction.

Other services provided to the communities included mammography clinics, height and weight checks, vision tests, blood pressure and diabetes screenings, and lessons about diet and exercise, first aid, oral health, relationships, domestic violence, prescription medication, sexually transmitted diseases and the Women, Infants and Children program.

Alyeska also sponsored community dinners in the villages of Tatitlek and Chenega Bay. From its creation, the traveling health fair was a joint project between Alyeska and state agencies to target Prince William Sound communities that had specific unmet health care needs.

In 2006, Lynden-owned Alaska Marine Lines from Cordova and Bering Marine Corporation joined as full sponsors, providing the marine craft and crew to move the volunteers through the Sound. Alyeska’s Ship Escort/ Response Vessel System provides the fuel.

These activities are supported by Alyeska’s co-sponsors, which include the State of Alaska Division of Health and Social Services, Valdez and Cordova public health nurses, and Chugachmiut Wellness Advocates.

The effort this year reached a broad audience with stops in Tatitlek, Chenega Bay, and Whittier. The teams provided 67 activities in six days and made 1,436 individual contacts. The week wrapped up with no safety incidents or injuries.

In 2006, the Prince William Sound Traveling Health and Safety Fair won the Alyeska Pipeline President’s Awards for Excellence in Environment and Health and Safety. The award is distributed each year to celebrate outstanding environmental, health, and safety performances along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

The program annually rewards and recognizes employees who demonstrate the excellence that is the hallmark of Alyeska’s core values.

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