Norwood Wellness Fair returning

The third annual Norwood Wellness Fair is returning this year on Nov. 14 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., this time moving to the Coakley Middle School.

The Norwood Public School Health Council will be running the event, with help from IMPACT Norwood and the Norwood High School Mustangs Football team (and a host of other volunteers). IMPACT Program Director Conor Brosnan said this time around, they’re starting to get their stride, and residents are noticing.

“Over the few years, we’ve had a good mix of families, young children, we’ve had some high schoolers showing up, and then a lot of older folks as well,” he said. “And this is completely free at no cost to anyone; the businesses and organizations tabling or the people coming to the event. We’re really trying to showcase businesses and organizations and trying to make wellness accessible to everybody. Everybody’s in a different place in their wellness journey, and this is just a good opportunity to see what’s out there and what you might connect with.”

Brosnan said they moved to the Coakley this year for a couple of reasons, but the broadest stroke is that the school is brand new.

“We’ve moved it to the Coakley this year, partly because of the better setup there to accommodate the businesses and organizations we invite, and on the other hand, we’re hoping it will give people the opportunity to see the new school for people who haven’t seen it yet,” he said. “You won’t get the full tour, but you’ll be able to see the gymnasium, the cafeteria; most of the first floor. We’re also going to use the black box theater they have there to host one of the vendors too.”

Brosnan said they are expecting more than 50 vendors to come by and hundreds of patrons.

“We’ll have a wide variety of businesses and organizations – from mental health providers to more physical fitness-type studios – and we even have some banks coming to talk about financial wellness,” he said. “And we’ll have a lot of new vendors as well.”

Brosnan said the feedback from both the vendors and the participants has been extremely positive.

“They found it was a great opportunity to talk to people who maybe weren’t in their orbit yet,” he said. “Maybe like a gym trying to get more people on board or a mental health provider. I think they found it was a really useful way to get the word out on whatever wellness initiative they were working on at the time.”

Brosnan said the idea behind the fair is to let residents know what’s available to them. The first step in getting where you need to be in terms of any health and wellness – physical, mental, emotional, social, financial, etc. – is to know the resources available to help you out.

“We’ve only heard really good things,” he said. “We’re lucky here in Norwood, that here in Town and the surrounding communities, we have so many opportunities for wellness, mental, physical, or more in the spiritual realm or wellness and self-care, whatever it is you’re looking for. I think we’re really lucky that we have a tremendous amount of businesses, organizations, and community groups, and I think – it’s no one’s fault either people are very busy and we get it – but I don’t think people realize what’s just next door to us and how much of it is free to access.”

Brosnan said they will have some physical and artistic help from Norwood students as well.

“They help move everything out of everybody’s cars and we’ll also have the Norwood Environmental Youth Commission there to help, along with the Norwood Public Schools Art Department for some signage for us, which is kind of cool,” he said. “The signage should be a little more interesting than in the last few years.”

For more information, go to https://gvimes.link/wllnss2026