An organizer of the inaugural Sundre Health Expo said expectations were exceeded, and she is optimistic about making the event annual.
"We met our goals in terms of the number of vendors to attend and we blew our goals out of the water in terms of the number of prospective shoppers who attended," said Kim Free.
"I was happy when I saw that my vendors were happy."
In light of that success, Free said she "absolutely" wants to pursue the possibility of bringing back the expo every year.
"I'm already doing this as an annual event in Olds ó or perhaps twice annually ó and so I think that Sundre would like to see it happen once annually."
Free teamed up with Lucinda Watkins and successfully applied for funding through the Town of Sundre's SEDIF grant to put on the event, which was held Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Sundre Community Centre. The idea is to encourage healthy, active living while offering local companies a chance for exposure.
"Running a small business can be tough and I knew of so many small businesses in the area that promote health," she said.
"I wanted to give them a unique opportunity. I had organized a similar ó but smaller ó event a few years ago and it was somewhat successful."
This time, Free welcomed the participation of performers from Studio K Dance Gallery, and also extended an invitation to the MAN VAN ó Canada's first and only mobile men's health clinic ó which was able to attend to offer Prostate Specific Antigen blood testing.
"Those (additional elements) definitely helped take (the expo) to the next level."
