During the month of October, the Wilkes University chapter of the American Pharmacist Association will be celebrating American Pharmacists Month.

During this month, pharmacists try to break the misconceptions that the public may have about their trade. The chapter on campus is trying to raise awareness to the students and staff of Wilkes University about the various things pharmacists do other than just stand behind the counter.

The chapter’s slogan is “Know your medicine, know your pharmacist.”

In order to raise this awareness on campus, the American Pharmacists Association will be holding a health fair every Tuesday for the month of October in the Henry Student Center during club hours. The health fair will feature presentations from Wilkes pharmacy students on a variety of different topics such as heart health, blood pressure, smoking and poison control.

The association is hoping to make this health fair an annual event, Keri Diehl, the association’s co-chair, said.

“It is nice to get out into the community, but we want to bring it back to our core.”

According to pharmacist.com, American Pharmacist Month is celebrated annually during October and serves to promote pharmacists as medication experts, an integral member of the health care team and  people who are directly involved in patient care.

American Pharmacist Month aims to educate the public, policy makers and other health care professionals about the role pharmacists play in the reduction of overall health care costs and the safe and effective management of medications.