Southwest Georgians take part in fun, research at Terrell Family Fall Festival

DAWSON – A family fall festival here Saturday attracted attendees both locally and regionally who were eager to take part in festive fun and contribute to a health research project. 

The event, presented by Morehouse School of Medicine and Albany Area Primary Health Care, featured about 20 different vendors from local small businesses to mobile health clinics at Cooper Carver Elementary School. Hundreds of visitors enjoyed the festivities throughout the day. Eighty-four of those visitors became participants in the “Discovery of Us” project with MSM representatives. 

The project is exploring the disparities faced by populations living in rural areas vs. urban centers and is focusing on residents of Terrell County. Participants took about 30 minutes of their time and had their blood drawn and other basic tests conducted, including blood pressure and weight. While the Family Fall Festival emphasized fun, it was also an opportunity for Terrell County residents to get informed and take control of their health.

Veronica Fudge, a 53-year-old who works with the South GA Starz Academy, a youth after-school program, was volunteering at the festival. She said she was interested in taking part in the research. 

“For a rural area, I think it is much-needed because we have a lot of families who can’t get to the doctor,” Fudge said. “By bringing this to them, it will make them more alert. Blood work can bring on a lot of things that you didn’t know was going on with you.” 

Other participants joined in on the research out of simple curiosity. Kendall Milsaps, a 20-year-old Albany resident, and Linda Morgan, an 80-year-old from Albany, came to the festival to participate.

“It just sounded cool, and why not? It’s free,” Milsaps said. 

Participants also received a $50 gift card, a box of fresh produce and free DNA test results, which they will receive later.  

Milsaps and Morgan also talked about the importance of offering this testing in a rural area. 

“When you have some areas that don’t even have primary care, there’s definitely a need,” Milsaps said. 

For Dorothy Redhead, a 77-year-old lifelong Dawson resident, participating in this research went much deeper. She was the first participant to complete the research event. She said she appreciates MSM’s focus on black people and their health outcomes specifically. 

“Nowadays, we don’t participate in too many things like this because so many things have happened in the past … they’ve done so many things that were incorrect to us for years, that we’re afraid to go,” Redhead said. 

She said this fear to participate in medical research means less is known about black health outcomes and why black people suffer disproportionately from chronic diseases.

Redhead has lived in Dawson her entire life. She worked at Terrell High School for 28 years. She said she has learned over the years that Terrell County’s population suffers from high rates of cancer and chronic diseases, making this type of research even more important. 

“I’m happy they came from Atlanta to little old Dawson, and I’m hoping they find something in me that might help someone else,” she said. “For the future, for the children, they need to know more about our bodies.”

As a young girl, Redhead said she picked cotton for work, earning 2 cents per pound of cotton. 

“Do you know how light cotton is? I could never get 150 pounds. It was slave wages,” she said. “I was telling the researchers, it’s really great to see that finally, so many of them are becoming doctors.

“I told them, ‘You need to find out what’s going on with us, our people,’” Redhead said. 

Another MSM research project, FIGHT for Life, was part of the festival. Kenya Baker serves as the project manager for the Albany-based project, which is seeking 70 participating families to study diabetes prevention. 

Each cohort of participants will spend 16 weeks taking part in physical activity, a health curriculum, a shared meal and cooking lessons. Baker said the first cohort will start in January. 

During the festival, the MSM mobile unit was checking blood sugar levels as well as cholesterol levels. 

Baker said the goal of the FIGHT for Life project is to help parents lose weight and to teach healthy habits for entire families. 

Those interested in participating can find out more at https://redcap.msm.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=RF7KT7D3TNKJ89DH.