LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Organizations in Louisville are making sure underserved people are staying healthy. Bates Community Development Corporation and Norton Healthcare hosted the Healthy Hearts Fair this past Sunday, Feb. 18, in the Smoketown neighborhood.

Nachand Trabue is the director of Bates Community Development Corp., whose mission is to improve the quality of urban life.

"We go out and try to help bring the resources back that [have] been uprooted from here years and years ago," Trabue said. 

Trabue is a fourth-generation Smoketown resident and said everything that happens there is very important to her.

"It's a good feeling; I've been up since six o'clock this morning on a Sunday," she said. "It's a good feeling if I’m up, and [the fair doesn't] feel like work to me because [it's] something that I care about and I'm passionate about and that I want to see the change happen here in the community that I grew up in."

It's why the Bates Community Development Corp. partnered with Norton Healthcare to provide the free Healthy Hearts Fair. There were blood pressure and blood sugar checks, information on mammograms and colon screenings, mental health information and more. 

"It's very important for us to be able to identify and help those in the community to see if they are at risk or if they have some health challenges ... because they might not be likely to go to primary care physicians, go to doctors," Trabue said. 

The fair was offered in Trabue’s hometown, a place she said sometimes people overlook.

"It's very important for us to reach back into communities that are underserved and have been overlooked for many reasons and be able to help bring those things that they really need in order for them to live a nice ... life," she said. 

Bates Community Development Corp. said it is hoping to make this a quarterly event.