Pharmacy Students Reach Families at Tet Festival

Pacific University School of Pharmacy students visited Portland’s annual Tet Festival celebration to provide outreach and care for members of the community.

Students represented the nationwide Script Your Future campaign, in which pharmacy schools across the country develop creative ideas to raise public awareness about the importance of medication adherence. Students handed out medication adherence cards and pill organizers, along with candy, and helped talk to participants about the importance of taking medications correctly.

Students also talked to children about medication safety, hosting an activity where children guessed which bags contained medicine and which contained candy. Children walked away with brochures, stickers and magnets providing information about poison control.

The Tet Festival, also known as Lunar New Year, is an important holiday for the Vietnamese community, as well as other Asian communities who celebrate it. Tradition says that how one spends the Tet establishes how the rest of the year will go — so it’s the perfect time to celebrate, share good fortune, and provide education on how to improve health.