Wealth of Information at Wellness Day 
Ammitai Worob, coordinator of Ithaca’s first Wellness Community Day, at his Ithaca office, Sea Change Family Chiropractic & Wellness.
Ithaca will celebrate its very first Community Wellness Day Event on Saturday, April 17 at Boynton Middle School from noon to 3 p.m. This free event, which the organizer hopes will be held yearly going forward, is sponsored by Cayuga Radio Group, The Ithaca Journal, Chemung Canal Trust, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Tompkins Weekly and Home Depot. This year’s event will showcase 50-plus enthusiastic local health and wellness participants providing information on financial, environmental, physical and mental health, as well as community safety.
Welcome packets will be handed out upon arrival, and attendees will be directed to the school gym and cafeteria where participants’ booths and tables will offer an array of wellness information.
In between samplings of healthy food and drinks from GreenStar, Dino’s Mediterranean Deli, Napoli’s, Sal’s Pizzeria and Ithaca Bakery, there will be a continuous flow of interactive entertainment in the auditorium, from face painting for children, Wii exercise stations provided by Best Buy, musical numbers performed by Running to Places Theatre Company, to interactive demonstrations by Harmony Karate, Ahimsa Yoga and the International Tai Chi Society.
In the outdoor parking lot, the Ithaca Police Department will provide information on home safety and the Ithaca Fire Department will provide information on fire prevention. Various community agencies will share their programs on car seat, bicycle and Internet safety. Cintas, a document shredding company, will be at the event to help those interested in learning how to protect themselves from identity fraud; they will actually shred, for free, stacks of paper attendees bring to the event.
This collaborative event will also include raffles every 10 minutes, distributing gift certificates from local restaurants, stores and coffee shops; a drawing will be held at 3 p.m. for adult and child grand prizes: a gas grill and a mountain bike.
The coordinator of the first-time event is Ammitai Worob of Sea Change Chiropractic and Wellness. Worob has made his home in Ithaca since moving here from Brooklyn about four years ago. The inspiration for this event came from his friend, and the co-founder of the national Community Wellness Day, Randi Ross, a chiropractor based in New Jersey.
“As soon as Randi told me about organizing this event I was excited to do it,” says Worob, who explains that Community Wellness Day is an annual event held in about 50 cities across the country over a four-week period. “Randi and another founding member of the event, Matthew Davis, based in Georgia, have seen how this event makes a strong impact on their communities. Everyone walks away with more knowledge and having a good time,” he added.
By now, most people realize that the health care crisis won’t be solved in Washington DC. Worob agrees, saying, “It’s going to be solved in our communities through education, awareness and people making lifestyle changes.” Illness is bankrupting us in every way, Worob says. “Despite exponentially outspending every country in the world in health care, the most recent rankings by the World Health Organization have the U.S. 37th in overall health systems and 72nd in health performance,” he notes. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll see a meaningful change in those numbers unless we can adopt a wellness lifestyle that incorporates a major shift in how we eat, move, and think.”
Worob believes that the most deadly diseases are lifestyle-based. Therefore, the two questions he hopes attendees will ask themselves, and answer, if they can, when they leave the event this Saturday are: what are the lifestyle changes I need to make in order to live a happier and healthier life, and how do I incorporate these changes into my daily life? “That’s why an event like this one is so important,” Worob says.
Rebecca Elgie of the Tompkins County Health Care Task Force agrees. She says that we as a community must realize that the newly-passed health care bill is not the answer for sustainable health care. “It’s certainly going to be important to continue to educate on this issue, to strengthen the bill so that we can work both personally on preventive care and as a society to provide affordable universal health care for everyone,” she says. “However, events such as this one provide people with an opportunity to educate themselves and others on these and other important health issues.”
Unique to Ithaca’s Community Wellness Day Event is the inclusion of financial wellness. “Financial wellness affects our daily lives as much as any other portion of this event,” says Worob. This is why institutions such as Alternatives Federal Credit Union (Alternatives), Chemung Canal Trust Company and the Strebel Planning Group will be present, providing information about firsttime- home-buyer opportunities and financial considerations of those heading into retirement.
“We will present material about our own community programs, such as our financial counseling program that offers free face-to-face time with one of our financial planners, our free tax preparation program, our individual development account program and MoneyWise, a six-week course offered three to four times a year based on a sliding scale,” Suzanne Cerquone, marketing director at Alternatives, says.
“People won’t walk away from this event with all the answers, but at least they’ll have some better ideas of where to go to get them,” says Worob.
The Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes is the beneficiary of this year’s event. If you would like to participate or volunteer, contact Worob at 256-9355 or info@seachangeithaca.com.
