Viewfinder: Health Fair Showcases Services

Even though her face was pressed against the message therapist’s chair, Lisa McCloskey felt pretty good.

And for that, she could thank Kimberly Miner, a message therapist and one of 30 exhibitors at health and wellness fair Saturday at the Arboretum Club in Buffalo Grove.

Miner skillfully worked on McCloskey’s upper back and neck as the Elmhurst woman sat, bent at the waist, in a specially designed chair.

“Up in here,” Miner said, when asked if her client felt tight. “Most of the time, people carry tension up in their neck and shoulders."

“What a chair massage does in 10 or 15 minutes, it helps you stay alert, helps with pain and swelling of the muscles and also helps in blood circulation.”

Although she appeared bent in an awkward, facedown position, McCloskey said she enjoyed the message.

“It feels great,” she said, laughing.

In fact, feeling great was the objective of the health fair, which offered free services, information and demonstrations in exercise, dancing, martial arts, postural assessments, flexibility, blood pressure and adrenal checks as well as glucose screenings and even biking.

Dan Gold, a volunteer from Be the Match, was on hand offering cheek swabs for the national donor registry for people seeking life-saving bone marrow transplants.

Gold explained that the cheek swabs are used in finding matches for people seeking bone marrow transplant.

His sister, Katie Abrams, a bone marrow recipient, was at the booth along with her uncle, Buffalo Grove , who stopped by for a swab.

Gold said that 75 percent of those needing bone marrow transplants use the national registry because finding a match within one's family is difficult.

Among the other booths was "," Buffalo Grove resident Shari Green, who specializes in .

A former dental hygenist and certified orofacial myologist, Green said she was inspired to start her business by young patients who can’t stop sucking their thumbs.

“Some of the techniques out there were not very positive,” she said, “so I decided I wanted to do something more positive.”