Soul Stroll health fair returns to San Mateo

Soul Stroll, a community event and fundraiser meant to connect the public with wellness information and resources in a fun and engaging setting, is back in person for the first time since going remote during the pandemic.

“Not only is this a fundraiser and providing access to health information to the community, it’s really a space for people to come together and get that sense of community,” said Lisa Tealer, executive director of the Bay Area Community Health Advisory Council, the organization behind the event. “The most important thing is for people to come together in a really safe, fun, festive environment and to connect with one another in a safe and fun way in the spirit of health.”

Since first launching Soul Stroll in 2002, the Bay Area Community Health Advisory Council has been bringing community members, nonprofits and public agencies together to share information on various important wellness topics and fun and interactive exercise events including its annual 1/3/5-mile walk and run.

The event serves as a fundraiser with contributions helping to fuel the council’s work which includes tabling at community events and farmers’ markets, providing free mammograms to uninsured women, hosting a men’s health symposium and other screenings and services.

“We have a wonderful staff that is out in the commuting every day,” Tealer said. “We want to be able to continue to provide those services to our community and that takes people and that takes resources to do that. … Monies raised go right back into providing services and advocating for our community to make sure their voices are represented.”

This year’s Soul Stroll will be held at San Mateo High School, 506 N. Delaware St. from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 20. Participants will receive a boxed breakfast and lunch. Children will have access to a kid’s corner that will feature face painting and other activities.

The health fair will include more than 30 organizations including Samaritan House, a nonprofit combating poverty; Ravenswood Family Health Network; the local National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter; College of San Mateo, which will be providing blood pressure screenings; and the University of California, San Francisco, which will be educating the public on colon and rectal cancer using its inflatable colon.

Bringing awareness to health disparities among communities of color is a key priority of this year’s Soul Stroll with its theme, “Movement is Resistance.” Those disparities were highlighted during the pandemic when public agencies and nonprofits had to work hard to ensure minority groups — especially Latinos in San Mateo County who often accounted for about half of COVID-19 cases — had access to support services, testing, vaccines and other information, Tealer said.

In 2020, San Mateo County supervisors declared racism a public health crisis and San Mateo County Health, the county’s health department, followed suit by joining dozens of public agencies in making the same declaration. Since then, the county has invested in programs meant to alleviate some of those disparities including allocating Measure K funds to the Soul Stroll event.

“Soul Stroll is an annual fundraiser that brings our community together for an important cause — eliminating the health disparities within our communities of color. This local event is key to improving the lives of vulnerable folks in our county,” District 2 Supervisor Noelia Corzo, the county’s first Latina supervisor and a Soul Stroll special guest, said in a statement.

Feminista Jones, an author, advocate, activist and educator whose work centers on queer identity, intersectionality, mental health and social work, will be this year’s Soul Stroll ambassador. Jones and Corzo will be joined by other special guests including San Mateo Mayor Amourence Lee, fitness expert Anita Black-Cowan, BACHAC Co-Founder Gloria Brown and longtime BACHAC Supporter Evelyn Neely.

“The Soul Stroll’s key message ‘Movement is Resistance’ reminds us that justice requires all to step up and march forward — we can heal our community through our collective action,” Lee said in a statement. “The BACHAC was instrumental during the pandemic and is critical to our efforts to rebuild a more equitable future that will support everyone in our community.”