Northern Door Health & Wellness Ministry aims to streamline health services

A lot of little petals make a big flower.

Sandy McCluggage (left) and Jan Liss (right) at the 2012 Healthy Living Fair, handing out brochures and offering blood pressure screenings.

That’s the message behind Northern Door Health and Wellness Ministry’s logo. Each petal is a program, like blood pressure screenings or health-related presentations, and together they represent a healthy, blooming community.

“We’re trying to approach the whole community, rather than just church by church, with assistance and information regarding health and wellness topics,” said Alice Stollenwerk, a board member of Northern Door Health and Wellness Ministry.

The ministry is a partnership of churches and organizations that work together to organize and streamline health services in the county.

So rather than having two churches offer free blood pressure screenings on the same day, the group can help them coordinate to share volunteers and equipment.

“The whole idea is to come together and eliminate the duplication of planning health and wellness within your parish,” said Barb Pasquesi, ministry board member.

It’s been around for a year, but on Sept. 30 Northern Door Health and Wellness Ministry will introduce itself to the community with a kickoff week, where volunteers will pass out brochures, make radio announcements and give blood pressure screenings around the county.

But passing out brochures isn’t all the group wants to do. Pasquesi said they’re looking for volunteers to help put together new programs like a community garden, type healthy living articles for church bulletins and organize people to take care of others’ houses in times of need.

Kaye Christman at the greeting table during the 2012 Healthy Living Fair at the Northern Door YMCA. Northern Door Health and Wellness Ministry cosponsored the event.

“It might be something as simple as making a meatloaf,” Pasquesi said.

And the more volunteers the group has, the more personal help they can give.

“The dreams are to perhaps have a community based center, where if somebody has a sudden health emergency there will be a meal available to send to a family,” Stollenwerk said.

The group already hosts community health information programs, or CHIPs, where experts speak about health topics. The next program will cover past and present leukemia treatments, and the program after that will cover stem cell transplants.

Beyond offering health services, the group wants to help market what programs are already here.

Pasquesi helped start the ministry last year, and said she’s surprised at the amount of resources and help available to people in northern Door County. The trouble is getting people who need the services connected with the groups that provide them.

Transportation was originally one of the organization’s big challenges for connecting people with health services, but Pasquesi said since Door 2 Door Rides opened that problem has been solved.

Door 2 Door is a public taxi service that picks up and drops off passengers in Northern Door, and has a bus that goes south to Sturgeon Bay.

“That was one of our biggest concerns, and it’s gone,” Pasquesi said.

The ministry’s website has a list of community events, like Wisdom Wednesdays at the YMCA and free dental services at Ministry Door County Medical Center, to help show people what local services are available.

“Our job is to try and make people aware of things like that,” Pasquesi said.