The U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research held a fiesta theme Program Awareness Fair April 10 to promote awareness on the various national, DOD, local community, and internal formal and informal programs.

While brainstorming ways to promote the Volunteer Protection Program, Safety Officer Stephanie Truss, Occupational Health Nurse Maria Dominguez and Staff Sgt. Jason Williams came up with the idea for the Program Awareness Fair.

"At the same time Staff Sgt. Khanesha Murrell, a member of the USAISR Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program, noted that April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month," said Truss. "As we thought more about it, we decided that it would be a great way to promote and feature not just these two programs but every program within the USAISR and the local community."

Truss added that the intent of the Program Awareness Fair was to provide a new creative way to promote awareness of the various programs and their point of contacts while having fun.

"We wanted the staff to walk away with some new information and or a refresher with a smiling face," she said.

To ensure that attendees visited every table at the fair, participants were provided a card printed with the icons of the programs at the entrance to the event. As the participants visited each table a signature was given to check-off that event on the card and once all of the events were checked-off, the participant's card was placed with the other completed cards for a drawing of a prize.

Eighteen programs covered during the fair included safety, health, Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention, Equal Opportunity, the Voluntary Protection Program, burn education, Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers, and the Army Surgeon General's Health Promotion Triad to name a few.

"I really think that the event was a success," said Truss. "We had well over 200 participants and 118 staff members completed their cards for the drawing."

Truss went on to say that based on e-mails and comments from the staff that the fair went very well and the different methods of disseminating the information of the different programs was much appreciated.

"We are already working on having another one at the same time next year," she said. "We are hoping to make it into an annual event. We received recommendation on other programs to add and we will continue to grow and improve."

Here are some of the comments made via e-mail to Truss by some of the staff members who attended the fair:

• "Great event, I learned a lot of information in a short amount of time." Beatrice Stevens
• "Thank you so much. I wanted to thank you for taking the lead on this. All of your hard work is appreciated!" Alberto Mares
• "I would like to congratulate you and your team on the Awareness Fair... It was well organized and each of my team members learned something new." Susan West
• "I really enjoyed this Awareness Fair! Everyone did a great job! Thank you for all the information and all the goodies too!" Patricia Garza