After 50 booths draw big turnout

• By SONIA SMITH
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 19, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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E.J. Klein spent his Saturday hitting all the free health screenings at the Life After 50 health expo in the Baton Rouge River Center.

While waiting in line to have his pulmonary function checked at the Ochsner Medical Center booth Saturday morning, Klein, 66, said that Medicaid would never pay for all these tests.

More than 20 booths offered free health screenings at the fifth annual expo, including checking for glaucoma, aortic aneurysms and varicose veins.

“This is fabulous, I come every year,” Klein said, adding that he wishes the expo would be held more often.

Klein, of Gonzales, said he had become more conscious of the importance of eating healthily after suffering a heart attack 13 years ago. He also has Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

In addition to the screenings, the expo offered 16 seminars on topics ranging from “Kidney Basics” and “Seniors in the Outdoors” to “Are Hearing Aids for You?”

Janet Caboche, news and community relations coordinator for WBRZ, said that this year’s turnout was very strong.

Seniors crowded around Dr. Kelly Scrantz’s slideshow on spinal deformities, eager to learn the treatment options available at the NeuroMedical Center.

Ralph Carter, 53, waiting to have his balance tested at the NeuroMedical Center booth, said that he appreciated the variety of services offered at the expo.

“With all of us getting a little older, we have to try to find better ways to take care of ourselves,” Carter said.

In one corner of the River Center, Marilyn Halvorsen, 60, took a break from playing “pickleball,” a peculiar cross of tennis and badminton, on a court outlined with purple tape.

The game, created in 1965 outside of Seattle, is played on a badminton court using a Wiffle ball and small, square racquets.