Company provides van for school screenings, and high school students staff it
By Andrea Rivera
Photos by Mamta Popat
Arizona Daily Star
November 20, 2008
PHOTO1 : Marana High School MedStart Academy student Kyle Rascon measures Travis Sturgill's height, on the Health Safari van parked outside Picture Rocks Intermediate School. Students there and at Desert Winds Elementary received health screenings in the animal-themed vehicle.
TUCSON - Students at Picture Rocks Intermediate School received basic health screenings last week from volunteers who aren't much older than they are.
Around 390 Picture Rocks students participated in the Health Safari, a program of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, last Thursday and Friday. They walked through an animal-themed van, had their height and weight measured and were screened for head lice — all by Marana High School students.
The high school students also performed dental, blood pressure and Body Mass Index checks.
The Health Safari vehicle travels all over the state as a public service to schools and communities.
The vehicle is not staffed with health professionals so schools must find volunteers to staff the vehicle.
PHOTO 2: Marana High School MedStart Academy participant Eric Stodder checks a Picture Rocks Intermediate pupil.
Picture Rocks, 5875 N. Sanders Road, tapped into Marana High School's MedStart Academy to staff the van with about 20 volunteers over the two-day period the van was parked outside the school.
Marana Unified School District's director of health services, Kathe Sudano, monitored the MedStart students.
"Most of us want to go into the medical field, so this is good experience," Marana junior Leiann Nandin said. "It's fun for us and it's fun for the kids.
Nandin, 16, spent last Thursday checking students' blood pressure.
Her classmate, Anjanette Carrillo,a senior, is considering a career as an emergency-room nurse and said volunteer opportunities such as the Health Safari will help her make a decision when it comes to her career.
"It helps me understand and get a better feeling of what it's like to work with children and other people," she said. "It will help me decide, 'Do I really want to be a nurse?' "
Optometrists from the Arizona Optometric Association also volunteered their time to provide vision screenings to 20 Picture Rocks students.
Those who need them can receive free eyeglasses.
"It's a huge benefit for some of our kids," Picture Rocks associate Principal Denise Coronado said. "If they can't see, they can't learn."
Since the Health Safari van started visiting communities in 1989, more than 200,000 children have received screenings, said Alex Arredondo, who served as the program's coordinator before he retired. He has since returned to drive the van.
The van also visited Desert Winds Elementary School, 12675 W. Rudasill Road, where about 450 students received screenings.
At some point during the school year, all students in the Marana school district receive vision and hearing screenings, Sudano said.
Screenings done by a school's health staff can sometimes take months to do, but Picture Rocks and Desert Winds had some 840 students screened in just a couple of days.
Parents will receive a booklet with results from the screenings.
School staff also can use the results to assist families with follow-up information, which could mean referring parents to a dentist in the community, Sudano said.
Marana senior Tessa Booth checked for cavities.
Though some of the students still had remnants of breakfast in their teeth, Booth said she didn't spot too many cavities and she didn't mind staring into the mouths of grade-school students.
"It's not that bad. It's what I'm going to be doing for a living so I don't mind," she said.
Booth has already joined the Army and would like to be a dentist someday.
Picture Rocks fifth-grader Brianna Edwards said she received good marks during her screening.
"I learned that I'm really healthy because I don't have head lice and they said I have perfect blood pressure," she said.
● Contact reporter Andrea Rivera at 806-7737 or arivera@azstarnet.com.
