The Northwest Kidney Centers Family Health & Kidney Expo

[Bill Peckham]

I think this may be the biggest kidney event in the world. This year we are expecting to have 1,700 attendees.

This event brings two big elements of my life together - I work as a trade show specialist (the company I work for sets up this event); and I volunteer with NKC. This is the third year for the Expo - we're back in the same space as the first year - the west side of the Club Level at Qwest Field (the suite level of the stadium where the Seattle Seahawks play). Somehow I have to come up with a floor plan that shoe horns in 80 booths, a bookstore, an expanded Kidz Zone, and a full screening area, complete with five consultation areas (everyone who goes through screening gets a free consultation with a nephrologist).

We are also offering a free lunch to every NKC dialyzor who attends so there is an expanded eating area. I am very hopeful that free food will get dialyzors in the door. Each year our goal has been 200 dialyzors and each year we've come up short. Third time's the charm?

Here is a long thread I started on Home Dialysis Central on September 1, 2005 that tracks my Expo highs and lows over the years: http://forums.homedialysis.org/showthread.php?t=387

This monster was my idea - the theory is that by having booths covering various educational topics (as opposed to presentations or panels) people can spend as little or as much time as they like on topics of interest. We'll have booths put together and staffed by NKC volunteers that cover everything from travel to history; from home therapies to nutrition. There will be about 25 NKC educational booths, about 15 vendor booths (corporate booths: drug & equipment makers) and 40 or so community booths (non-profits and local businesses). The booth idea also lends itself to reaching the dialyzor circle of support. We get a lot of spouses, kids and friends who after going through all the booths have a much clearer understanding of what being on dialysis means.

It's a great event - come if you can. Knowledge is power.

Here is the NKC website with more informaiton: http://www.nwkidney.org/kidneyInformation/events/kexpo/index.html

I should say that this is a totally free event. In fact it is better than free because every person who attends generates a donation to NKC. For every person who walks in the door someone will donate $5 to NKC. Your attendance doesn't cost money, your attendance raises money!

[KT0930]

Sounds very cool, Bill, wish I lived closer and could make it. Best of luck with it!

[Bill Peckham]

Here's a summary - I wish each NFL stadium would host a Kidney Expo on their bye weekend. Most of us live in an NFL market.

What: 3rd Annual Family Health Kidney Expo sponsored by Northwest Kidney Centers
When: Saturday, October 27 from 9 a.m - 3 p.m.
Where: Qwest Field, Club Level, Seattle, WA
Admission: FREE -- Everyone's invited
Parking: $3 at Qwest Field lot (a $7 discount)

Why should you, and your family and friends attend?:

• Free health screenings (blood relatives of dialyzors are at increased risk for kidney disease - bring your family and get them tested!)
• Booths & exhibits
• Cooking demonstrations and free food samples (and a free lunch!)
• Lots of give aways, including iPod Shuffles, George Foreman Grills, and Northwest Kidney Centers gift baskets, plus much more
• Celebrity guests (Seattle sports teams' mascots, KIRO radio personalities)
• Kids' Corner (bring your kids, save money on a sitter)

Choose from more than 70 booths, including over twenty NKC educational booths, to help you and your family live healthier and feel better. Topics including:

• How to avoid or delay kidney disease
• The diabetes and kidney disease connection
• Taking care of your skin and feet
• How to find a living kidney donor or become one yourself
• What’s involved in getting a kidney transplant
• The positive effects of massage therapy
• Exercise and activity – better fitness, better life
• Services for seniors
• Ask the nutritionist
• Samples of delicious food that’s good for your body
• The kidney – the window to the heart
• Protecting yourself and your loved ones from kidney disease
• How to reduce neck and back pain
• High blood pressure – preventing and treating it
• Fitness made easy
• Choosing a treatment option that fits your lifestyle
• Traveling on dialysis

Don't miss this terrific opportunity to have some fun and learn at the same time.

[okarol]

Sounds like a great event Bill - I hope it reaches a lot of people!

[donnia]

Wow!  I wish I could go!  Sounds like a great event!

[paris]

Great event!  Need more around the country. I would love to attend this.

[MyssAnne]

Paris, I was just thinking it would be so great to have something like this in other parts of the country.  What a great concept!

[Rerun]

I wish I could go Bill but I live too far away.  I may be up your way at Thanksgiving.  My anut lives in Kenmore.  I'll let you know if I plan on going and maybe we can meet. 

I'll tell my cousin about it.  She has protine in her urine and they watch her pretty close.  Maybe she will go.

[Bill Peckham]

Rerun if I'm in town it'd be great to meet up - I'm spending Thanksgiving in the Chicago area, back on Saturday.

What I would like is to have a Kidney Expo in every NFL stadium during the week they take off - the bye week. There are 32 NFL teams and I think 4 teams take the week off each week during an eight week period of the season. No offense to NFL fans but I would guess that they are an at risk group but even if they're not it would be a great marketing tie in if the NFL would support raising kidney awareness.

It is hard to raise money with these things but ideally each one would raise money for kidney research. If nothing else it would give an opportunity to screen people for CKD and provide knowledge to dialyzors and their circle of support.

My idea to motivate people to attend is to have attendance underwriting. At the NKC Expos every person who attends generates a donation to the kidney center. The first year I found about six donors who agreed to make a donation for every "butt through the door". That first year $37 was donated for every attendee (over 1,000); the second year $27 for every attendee (over 1,500); this year I've managed to only get $5 pledged (it was a lot easier to get pledges when people thought no one would come). If the NFL would donate the space in each stadium then the economics pencil out almost - need some big sponsors (outside the usual renal suspects - much better if they were the usual NFL sponsors). Anyone have a contact at the NFL that I could pitch this to?

[kitkatz]

Maybe we will pop on up here.  We are probably going to take the car to his duaghter in Tacoma.

[Bill Peckham]

That would be great! Parking is just $3 so you could start and finish a day trip to Seattle at the Expo.

[Krisna]

This is the site for the kidney centers I go to.  They held a big health expo today.  It's an annual event held at Qwest Field in Seattle, WA.

http://www.nwkidney.org/nkc/healthyLiving/index.html




EDITED: Merged Topics - okarol/moderator

[Zach]

Then did you have an opportunity to meet IHD member and NKC Board member Bill Peckham?  The expo was his idea.

Bill is on home hemo, and he has been traveling the world for years.

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=5290.msg76471#msg76471

 

[mariannas]

I'm very sorry I missed this.  I found out about it awhile ago, but unfortunately I already had an event planned in Oregon to go to.  I hope everything went well - it looked like a really fun time!

[Krisna]

I was there!  My friend Hettie won an iPod!  I've gone every year since they started this Expo!  It's a big deal around here!   

[Krisna]

Then did you have an opportunity to meet IHD member and NKC Board member Bill Peckham?  The expo was his idea.

Bill is on home hemo, and he has been traveling the world for years.

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=5290.msg76471#msg76471

 

I never got around to reading this until now!  lol  I have been battling the flu or something for a couple weeks.  Thought I was well so I went to the Expo but now I'm sick again/still!

I talked to a few people at the expo but I never did get their names!  One was at a booth that had pics of the old Scribner Shunts and I was like, "I had one of those when I was 8 yrs old and Robert Hickman was my Nephrologist!"  The guy said I was the third person that day who had come up and said they had a Scribner Shunt! 

[Bill Peckham]

Then did you have an opportunity to meet IHD member and NKC Board member Bill Peckham?  The expo was his idea.

Bill is on home hemo, and he has been traveling the world for years.

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=5290.msg76471#msg76471

 

I never got around to reading this until now!  lol  I have been battling the flu or something for a couple weeks.  Thought I was well so I went to the Expo but now I'm sick again/still!

I talked to a few people at the expo but I never did get their names!  One was at a booth that had pics of the old Scribner Shunts and I was like, "I had one of those when I was 8 yrs old and Robert Hickman was my Nephrologist!"  The guy said I was the third person that day who had come up and said they had a Scribner Shunt! 

That was Jack Cole's booth. Jack was in many ways the first dialysis tech. He is also a NKC trustee and past board chair. I thought there were fewer people at the Expo than last year. The numbers should be out soon. There is an Expo debrief next Wednesday I should hear some actual numbers by then.