East Hills Mall was the host of the Heart and Stroke Expo on Feb. 7 with a large amount of booths containing workers from medical and health establishments all around Bakersfield.

Jackie Andreesen, the Community Liaison for the Center for Neuro Skills, said, “I am here on behalf of my employer because Debra Strong, Bakersfield College nurse, puts us on the books to attend each year. She’s usually the one organizing it.”

The booths were offering free samples from Bakersfield Memorial Hospital as well as San Joaquin Valley College.

The expo was to get the community involved in better health awareness and the participants in the expo demonstrated their drive for it with free glucose, iron and EKG screenings.

There were on-site physician’s assistants there to perform each screening with the help of student nurses in training.

The expo was also a center of entertainment around the booths with prizes that were donated from each booth’s company.

The prizes ranged from baskets filled with specialized cookies, bikes, stationary baskets and others.

The people taking advantage of the free health screenings and samples said that they were willing to participate in the prize give-away. Halfway through the scheduled event, the prizes were almost gone.

In order to enter the give-away sweepstakes, people had to pick up a card at one of the booths. Each time people stopped at a booth, they got a stamp, and once the limit of ten was reached, they were entered into the drawing box.

There was music playing all during the event that only stopped during the 30-minute intervals when the sponsors were giving away prizes.

Donate Life, an organ donation center, also had a booth manned by people who have received organ donations.

They gave out pamphlets and signed people up to become future donors. The booths offered free samples from weight-loss centers like Curves in East Bakersfield, which included free travel bags, a sample of low-calorie cookies and bars and free appointment settings.

Each medical establishment was ready at the assigned booths to perform the blood pressure and vital-sign screenings for the people in attendance.

The booths all held pamphlets to help inform people how to prevent heart attack and strokes and the locations of where they can be treated for any signs.