Trinity Church’s health fair reaches out to homeless

Trinity Missionary Baptist Church is holding its first health fair today, aimed at helping homeless people, many of whom go without basic health care services.

"The idea was birthed out of those times when we gather up our brothers and sisters from the parks and coastlines where they sleep at night" to give them a hot meal, a place to worship and some clothing every few months, said the Rev. Dwight E. Cook, the church’s pastor.

"We just sit around and talk, and I could see the need for dentistry, eye exams — some of them hadn’t been to an eye doctor in years," Cook said. "One said, ‘Pastor, I think I have high blood pressure, but I don’t know.’ Just hearing the needs, I said we really need to have a health fair just for the community. Everybody who comes, if they don’t have medical insurance, they can come for free … so they don’t have to suffer physically."

The fair is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with free lunch and entertainment at the church, at 3050 Paine Circle near Hickam Air Force Base. Project Vision will provide free eye exams and glasses. There will also be hepatitis testing, blood pressure monitoring, diabetes and cancer education, and a blood drive.

Hawaii Senior Medicare Patrol, the State Task Force on Alz­hei­mer’s Disease and Related Dementias, and Catholic Charities Hawaii will offer information.

For follow-up care after today, Cook said the church hopes "people living on the margins of society know they can come to Trinity and that we’ll connect them with the services they’ll need."

Among the church’s 300 regular members are nurses, health care workers and military personnel who are aware of their guests’ neglected medical treatment and "have the gifts and talent" to help them, Cook said.

Ava Beamon, a member of Trinity for 25 years and a board trustee, said several of the church’s members belong to the Hono­lulu Black Nurses Association, including herself. The nationally linked organization voluntarily provides information and education on health matters, focusing especially on helping blacks and other minorities on Oahu.

Six times a year the church picks up men, women and children from the Institute of Human Services, Aala Park, Kakaako and Sand Island and takes them to Trinity for meals and fellowship before returning them at the end of the day, Beamon said.

Trinity partners with Family Promise of Hawaii to provide homeless families with temporary sleeping accommodations for a week and meals four times a year. It also serves a hot meal every month to Next Step Shelter in Kakaako, Cook said.

"The people here really do have a sense of outreach," he said. "If you were to ask me what’s the one thing this church really does well? This group practices the gift of hospitality in a great way; they really do serve the people. They see it as a call of God."

Started 45 years ago by nine people, Trinity "helps people from all walks of life but especially pays attention to the poor and the disenfranchised. Our vision from the beginning is to help them get back on their feet" with alcohol and drug addiction programs and other kinds of support, he said.

"The programs and events we put on are like catch nets that keep people from falling further in life," Cook said.