Beatta Dire, Owner of Master’s Touch Salon in the Valley works on a customer at Health Woman

For Beatta Dire, The Healthy Woman Expo at Vallley Hospital and Medical Center was a perfect fit.

“Any time we can do something that makes women feel better about themselves I’m all for it,” says Dire, who owns Master’s Touch Salon in the Spokane Valley.

Dire’s staff from the salon along with several other businesses set up shop in the hospital with beauty products, make up and free advice Thursday night as part of Valley Hospital’s Healthy Woman initiative.

Healthy Woman - a entirely free program - is designed to empower women with the knowledge and confidence to make informed health care and well-being decisions for themselves and their loved ones. Free seminars, health fairs, educational programs and fun interactive events are hosted once each month. Monthly Healthy Woman events are designed to improve the emotional, physical and fiscal well-being of women and their families

The hospital say the goal is to empower women with the knowledge and confidence to make informed health care and well-being decisions for themselves and their loved ones.

“Women are truly the “healthcare managers” of their families - making over 80% of all family healthcare decisions. For women, balancing a career, family, home and still managing to find time for oneself is difficult. Valley Hospital and Medical Center and Deaconess Medical Center launched the Healthy Woman program in November 2009 to help women find ways to be healthier and happier, at no cost. The Healthy Woman program gives women of all ages access to free resources to help them nurture a healthy mind, body and spirit so that they can best take care of themselves and their loved ones. Our goal is to enrich local women in a variety of ways to improve their overall quality of life,” says Sasha Jackowich, Director of Public Relations at Valley Hospital.

Master’s Touch Massage Therapist Chris Kalinowski works on a client

“This event was designed to provide a fun, relaxing and free environment for women to explore ways to feel better about themselves in the new year. At Valley, we believe that taking care of yourself is a process that flows from the inside out and the outside in and our event tonight gave women the opportunity to indulge in ways to feel better about themselves - without guilt (because the services were free!).

Women face so much stress in their day to day lives and getting together to have fun, bond and try new things in a low-key pressure-free environment is important. Future monthly Healthy Woman events will focus on topics including heart disease, breast cancer, nutrition, stress management and life-balance issues,” added Jackowich

“The turn out was amazing and we had the chance to touch base wit a lot woman who had questions about some of the things we do at our shop like permanent eyeliner, pedicures and make up. This is a great opportunity to talk with our customers. I was so excited when the hospital asked me to take part in the event,” said Dire.

Any woman can join the Healthy Woman program…there are no age requirements or membership requirements. All you have to do is sign up!

If women wish to join, they can visit www.spokanevalleyhospital.com and click on the Healthy Woman icon. We’ll send monthly emails or postcards detailing upcoming events and networking opportunities.