by Heidi Gómez ·
Friday, March 13, 2026
The Harvard Lions Club will hold its first health and wellness fair on Saturday, March 21, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Hildreth Elementary School (HES). There will be many free and interactive services promoting health and safety.
In a telephone interview, Joe Schmidt of the Lions Club said a primary goal of the health fair is to give back to the Harvard and Devens communities in a fun and informative way. The activities and services being offered align with the service goals of the Lions Club. Among their global causes, the Lions seek to improve the quality of life of people with visual impairments. In keeping with this goal, vision and hearing screenings will be provided, as well as an eyeglass swap.
A second Lions cause involves disaster relief. There will be a blood drive and the Massachusetts General Hospital bloodmobile will be present. There will be an information table for Nashoba Valley Regional Dispatch, which provides emergency communication services (911) for Berlin, Bolton, Boxborough, Devens, Harvard, Lancaster, and Lunenburg. To address hunger assistance, there will be a table for information about Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit organization providing food assistance to residents of Harvard and neighboring towns. Advice on nutrition will be provided by dietitian Jessica Roy, who will stress the goal of eating a “rainbow” of colorful fruits and vegetables.
The health fair will also provide blood pressure screenings and sign-ups for youth spring and summer sports through the Harvard Athletic Association. An information table for the Harvard Board of Health and representatives from Reddy Family Dental will be there. Licensed Zumba instructor Deborah Oliva will be offering an hour-long class at 9:30 that morning.
Harvard Fire-EMS will have a presence at the fair. There will be two community CPR classes to train attendees in recognizing a sudden cardiac arrest and what to do during such an event, although participants will not receive CPR certification. Each 45- to 60-minute class will involve instruction and practice time.
In an interview with the Press, Jennifer Schoenberg, volunteer firefighter and EMT, stressed the importance of performing chest compressions to keep a person alive if they are no longer breathing and without a pulse. Attendees will be able to practice doing so on mannequins, maintaining a rhythm to the tune of “Staying Alive,” or, perversely, “Another One Bites the Dust.” They will learn to “push hard, push fast” so that oxygenated blood flows into vital organs.
The second part of the course involves the use of an automatic external defibrillator (AED), or, as Schoenberg said, “the thing that brings them back to life.” Attendees will learn which buildings in town have AEDs, such as the Harvard Public Schools, Harvard Senior Center, and the General Store, and will practice using an AED on mannequins. The classes are open to people as young as 12.
Schoenberg also spoke about “Stop the Bleed,” a program that trains bystanders how to help in a bleeding emergency. In the case of “deep puncture bleeding, you can lose the majority of your blood in two minutes,” she said. Key to this process are pressure and packing. One must apply pressure to the wound, then pack it with things like gauze, to stanch profuse blood loss while waiting for first responders to arrive. People can drop by the table to see props like tourniquets— specialized devices that stop bleeding—because, as this reporter learned, TV depictions of tightened belts or hems torn from ball gowns are not sufficient to stop blood flow.
Schmidt said that several of these services have been offered in “isolation” as part of other events. With this health fair, the Harvard Lions will be providing a range of services all in one place, HES. To sign up for the blood drive, Zumba class, and community CPR courses, follow the links to the health fair webpage from harvardlions.com.
During the fair, Park and Rec will hold its first athletic gear swap. People can bring in gently used items and take what they need from a donated pool of gear. Bromfield athletes will be staffing the different stations on Saturday and can answer questions about the sport and the gear needed.
Recreation Director Anne McWaters said she has been wanting to do this for almost two years, and after speaking with Schmidt, determined that the swap and the health fair were a good match.
The swap will accept children’s gear, adult sporting equipment, and other recreational or fitness items, such as soccer cleats, baseball and softball bats and gloves, basketballs, volleyball knee pads, tennis rackets, pickleball paddles, fishing rods, and dance clothing; bicycles and skis will not be accepted. For a complete list of the sports gear that will be accepted for the swap, go to the MyRec link at the Park and Rec page on the town website. Swap items can be dropped off ahead of time on Friday, March 20, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the HES gym.
Together with the spring and summer sports sign-up at the health fair, the combined events will provide an opportunity for people to know more about recreational opportunities in town, as well as the health benefits of exercise.