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Viva Corrales day two brings numerous activities
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CORRALES — The third annual Viva Corrales! continued April 27 after its first day involved the re-mudding of Old San Ysidro Church the Saturday before. Sunday was a complex event involving many aspects important to Corrales.
Corrales Main Street Executive Director Angela Gutierrez, who had a booth at the Health and Wellness fair, talked about the importance of Viva Corrales! in general and also the fair specifically. There was some concern because of the forecast for extreme winds in much of central New Mexico.
"Obviously, we were a little concerned with the wind, but that's not something we could control," Gutierrez said.
She said that she was glad to see the good turnout despite the promise of strong winds.
"Definitely glad to just see a lot of community members and people out, exploring and getting to see the equestrians and Growers Market. This obviously is a big offering to have a Health and Wellness event. We're just happy to offer this to the community, and hopefully a lot of our organizations get some extra awareness, too," she said.
The format of Viva Corrales! has changed since its start two years ago, according to Gutierrez.
"It was just a one-day event. Because we have so many organizations and things happening, we decided to spread it over a four-weekend series just to try to be able to give everybody a time slot that made sense for their organization, and most of these events existed before Viva Corrales! Viva Corrales! kind of just brought it all together under one promotion umbrella," she said.
A large part of the first weekend was the Health and Wellness Fair in the recreation center.
Sara Osusky, business consultant and trainer at WESST Rio Rancho, organized the event with Presbyterian Medical Services as a sponsor. It is the second year in a row the event has been put on.
"It's probably double the number of people that we had last year. I'm so happy. I was nervous with the weather today, but it turned out great," she said.
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"Health and wellness is just an important thing for everybody. I think that we tend to put that on the back burner, especially as adults, and then as life gets busy, it's hard to take that time to learn about what options are out there for you," she said.
She added that the event puts all needs in one place so people don't have to spend as much time searching.
Mental health was a common theme at the event. Horses For Healing, which had a booth, focuses on helping with pervasive trauma. Executive Director Caitlin Erickson talked about the importance of that kind of health help. Part of that was giving people the chance to meet one of their therapy ponies. The "fluffy" miniature horse was popular with both kids and adults.
"The mission of Horses For Healing, Inc., is the provision of client-centered, trauma-informed and evidence-based clinical equine psychotherapy and complementary services that support healing from pervasive trauma. To provide services to all who suffer from complex trauma regardless of age, gender, race, culture. And, to provide a gold standard of care to both our clients and our equine partners. And to actively advocate for and provide a permanent home to elder/vulnerable horses so that they may have a new purpose in their elder years," the Horses For Healing website states.
The Health and Wellness event also had quite a few senior care-centered booths. Some were geared toward helping seniors and their families with end-of-life services. Death Doula Professionals was at the event to talk about easing the process. Owner Brooke Nutting said she got a lot of interest from community members.
"There's been a lot of traffic, a lot of interest," she said.
The nonmedical end-of-life guide helps holistically answer end-of-life questions, according to her. While death can be a sad and distressing time, Nutting said it can also be a sacred and natural time which the death doula can help with.
Another popular stop at the event was a sound bath demonstration by Amber Word. The sound bath involved laying in a quiet, dark room while Word hand beat a singing bowl. She and an assistant had people inebriated with peace by the time they left the event.
The Health and Wellness event provided people a brief respite from the heat and rising winds.
Another important part of the event-filled day was the equestrian, pedestrian and bicycle safety event also known as the Rides, Strides and Giddy Up event. Gutierrez said this was especially important because of recent Corrales issues with road safety.
"It's always been (an issue), but in the last year and a half, we've had some really scary incidents," she said.
A way the village is mitigating ignorance to road rules is by hosting a series of videos on safety awareness. Gutierrez says this is because there are so many different modalities in Corrales.
She said Rides, Strides and Giddy Ups spokesperson Chris Allen noticed an uptick in outdoor walkers and riders after COVID-19. The community has been put on notice to slow down since then.
The Corrales Grower's Market and the annual Sandoval Master Growers plant sale also drew a crowd with plenty to choose from.
Viva Corrales! continues May 3-4.
