Health and Wellness Expo Cleaning air and healing injured teddy bears

MOSES LAKE — The 2018 Central Washington Health and Wellness Expo arrived on Saturday, bringing together doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, medical device makers and other health professionals.

Oh, yeah, there were teddy bears too.

“Our kids are going through, the teddy bears all have a broken leg,” said Marisol Pruneda of Columbia Basin Family Medicine in Ephrata. “So, we're casting them today, making them all better.”

Sponsored by Confluence Health Care, the teddy bear clinic is a regular feature of the Health and Wellness Expo, which kicked off in Big Bend Community College's ATEC building at 9 a.m. and lasted through 3 p.m.

Confluence had 300 bears to give away, and as kids picked up their teddy bears, they got birth certificates for their stuffed friends and learned about proper nutrition and exercise. Next the bears were “X-rayed” (by an old overhead transparency projector) and had their broken bones set.

Which is what Pruneda did, carefully wrapping stuffed fuzzy legs in cotton and then a sticky fiberglass tape which hardens into a smooth cast when it gets wet.

“It'll be a little bit sticky at first,” she tells a little girl. “So, hold Teddy by his arm.”

“I hope Teddy gets better soon!” Pruneda added.

Inside the main hall, at a table underneath a big banner that said “Rainbow,” two clear plastic pots hummed softly, water splashing gently within.

“This is our Rainmate, and right now, it is washing our air,” said Sandy Gray, as she demonstrates her company's water-based air purifier. “It's taking the air, washing it and filtering it.”

The Rainmate is the younger sibling to Rexair's Rainbow Cleaning System, which cleans air with water in much the same way a rainstorm does. The little Rainmate is designed to slowly filter and purify the air in small rooms, and Gray said its been helpful to have in Moses Lake, especially after this summer's smoke-filled air.

“It's like the rain outside, circulating the water,” Gray said. “There are no filters to clean.”

“I have one of those!” said a little girl as she clutched a brand-new teddy bear with a bandaged leg.

The Health and Wellness fair was jointly sponsored this year by Confluence Health Care, Columbia Basin Health, Health Alliance Medicare, Costco, Samaritan Healthcare, Molina Health Care, and the Columbia Basin Herald.

“We do this every year, and we're just out here to try and help educate the community and answer any questions they might have,” said Cassandra Partridge, a lactation consultant with Samaritan Healthcare.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.