NORWICH – With prom just over a week away, the Norwich High School is taking the time to remind students of the importance of making healthy choices in their lives. On Friday, the school will host a day-long health fair in conjunction with a special pre-prom event hosted by Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD).

“We wanted to present it all as a pre-prom, pre-graduation health and safety awareness event for our students in particular, but also the community as a whole,” said School Nurse Barb Hilts, who along with Dental Hygienist Teresa Woodard and Counselor Kelly Colosi, helped plan the health fair.

From 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, more than 30 health-related organizations and other vendors will set up booths in the high school gymnasium.

According to Woodard, exhibitors will include not only medically-oriented organizations like the Chenango County Health Department, Chenango Health Network, Chenango Memorial Hospital, Bassett Healthcare, a massage therapist, and a nutritionist but also groups like Rogers Environmental Education Center, the Norwich City Police Department, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Chenango Bounty, the Chenango Soccer Club and the Bullthistle Hikers which promote healthy lifestyle choices.

“Several of these I wasn’t even aware of,” Woodard said, looking over the complete vendor list. Others she said she connected with by attending other health fairs in the area. Even though this is the first such event at the high school, they have succeeded in filling all of the space they had available.