CENTENNIAL, Colo. (3/25/11) – The Colorado Army and Air National Guard is providing trucks and drivers to help deliver supplies for 9Health Fair to more than 150 communities.
The mission of the annual 9Health Fair is to promote health awareness across the region and encourage individuals to take responsibility for their own health through free medical screenings.
The Colorado National Guard and 9Health Fair have been community partners for 32 years, with the CONG delivering medical supplies and providing other logistical support to the event through the Innovative Readiness Training program.
IRT is a 1992 initiative by the Department of Defense and Congress to allow National Guard and Reserve units the opportunity to conduct certain types of training that, in the real world, benefit the community.
“The Colorado National Guard is a community-based organization so we’re already in most of the communities that 9Health Fair serves,” said Army Lt. Col. Michael Delgado, CONG IRT program manager.
“This was an interesting experience, to go around and see the different communities that are providing this service free or for a low cost, especially in this current economy,” said Spc. Kendra Whyard, a Soldier with the Colorado Army National Guard’s 220th Military Police Company.
The 220th, part of the 89th Troop Command based at the Denver Armory, provided seven Soldiers and three trucks to help deliver supplies throughout the Denver metro area. The Colorado Air National Guard’s 137th Space Warning Squadron, based in Greeley, Colo., provided 10 vehicles and 16 Airmen to transport supplies across the state. During the month of March the 137th is also trucking 9Health supplies to the neighboring states of Wyoming and Nebraska.
“The health fair is gaining popularity here in Colorado. Other states are seeing this and want to adopt the program,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Daniel Martinez, 137th SWS. “These neighbor states have yet to develop an infrastructure to support the program and are leaning on us and 9Health to help get it started in their communities.”
This IRT event involves real-world training opportunities for servicemembers and units to prepare them for their wartime missions while also supporting the needs of their local communities.
“It’s nice to give back to the community and see the amount of support that people still give back to the military,” said Whyard.
For more photos of this event, visit us in Flickr.