Senator Jamaal T. Bailey’s Father’s Day Celebration

(BRONX, NY) Senator Jamaal T. Bailey hosted his first annual Father’s Day Celebration in collaboration with Fidelis Care, the Morris Heights Health Center, and the Mall at Bay Plaza. The event was hosted at the Bay Plaza Mall in Co-op City on Friday, June 23rd, 2017 from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. 

The event included a series of activities in promotion for Men’s Health Awareness Month. The theme surrounding the event is “A Healthy Man’s Checklist.” The dialogue behind men’s health is that men usually neglect for various reasons to schedule their annual physicals or screenings. In a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it found that approximately 24.5% of men die of heart disease and 23.4% die of cancer. With a healthy lifestyle and regular check ups these number can decrease. In an effort to bring awareness to this issue, at the event we provided, blood pressure screening, glucose screening, fitness assessments, and relaxation massages.

During the event, Senator Bailey honored Mental Health Advocate Brett Scudder for his dedication to bringing awareness and resources to mental health. As a suicide attempt survivor Scudder founded the organization Scudder Intervention Services Foundation Inc. (SISFI). SISFI is a non-profit organization that provides education, awareness, training, support, development and research on social, societal, psychological, human, sociological and technological intelligence, impacts and effects of life, abuse, bullying (on and offline), domestic violence, gun violence, homelessness, socioeconomics, suicide awareness and prevention, Internet and technology across all levels of our infrastructure (people, processes, policies, laws and technology). 

In addition we highlighted the “Every Child Covered Campaign” throughout the event. The initiative of the campaign is to promote health coverage for all children. There are still more than 100,000 children across New York State that are not insured. Senator Bailey supports the initiative introduced by Fidelis Care and was glad to bring awareness to the issue during the Father’s Day event.