The doctor’s office can feel nerve-racking. That feeling is often exacerbated when waiting for the bill.
At Arlington’s Mount Olive Baptist Church, where 20 vendors offered free health services and screenings last weekend, the script was flipped.
The 100 Black Men of Greater Dallas/Fort Worth nonprofit partnered with Texas Health Resources to host the organization’s annual Health and Wellness Expo. The event kicked off with over 200 attendees participating in a 1K and 5K run meant to encourage healthy lifestyles and habits. Vendors later offered flu and COVID-19 vaccinations, early detection prostate screenings, blood pressure screenings and mammograms. In addition to medical services, the event had educational health seminars on topics such as mental health.
“We believe in mentoring across a lifetime and that’s what this is all about,” said Anthony Sampson, co-founder of the local 100 Black Men chapter. “If you think about it, if our young people get this information early, it will carry on through their entire life.”
The 1K and 5K run starts as part of 100 Black Men’s Health and Wellness Expo event on Sept. 12, 2026. (Courtesy | 100 Black Men of Greater Dallas/Fort Worth)
Founded in 1963, 100 Black Men of America is a national organization focused on empowering youth and enhancing the quality of life in Black communities. The organization focuses on five main pillars: mentorship, education, economic empowerment, leadership development, and health and wellness. The expo is a demonstration of their health initiative.
“Our focus is in the African American community because there’s a lot of disparities in health services being offered to us,” said Larry Allen Sr., president of the nonprofit’s Dallas/Fort Worth chapter. “The way we get it, the type of care that we get — it’s very important for us to do this for our community.”
In previous years, 100 Black Men offered only prostate screenings at their expo, Sampson said. Black men have the highest prostate cancer death rate compared to other ethnic groups — and are twice as likely to die than white men, according to the American Cancer Society. While prostate cancer deaths have dropped by 56% since their peak in 1993, 1 in 6 Black men are still at risk of developing the cancer in their lifetime, according to the ACS cancer statistics for African American and Black people.
Texas Health volunteer points to mammogram model and explains what a mammogram test can help discover. (Mica Magday | Fort Worth Report)
Lizzy Townsend, the outreach coordinator for the Prostate Conditions Education Council, was guiding expo attendees through early detection of prostate cancer screenings. Townsend, whose grandfather died of the disease, is familiar with the effects and the stigma around getting tested.
“He was actually my best friend, and I have very vivid memories of him,” she said. “Because I had a family member who was affected by prostate cancer, I understand.”
By partnering with 100 Black Men for over a decade, Townsend is able to offer the service in a comfortable environment and debunk the myths of the test being invasive.
“Unfortunately, many healthcare providers do not provide prostate cancer testing unless you actually ask for it,” Townsend said. “We can just provide a simple blood test to get just those baseline numbers to just really know how to navigate and protect yourself and live a long, healthy life.”
Upcoming events from 100 Black Men’s Dallas/Fort Worth chapter include a financial literacy course and their monthly Saturday leadership development program. Next June, the national nonprofit will host their 41st Annual Conference that gathers members, corporate partners, youth and chapters nationally and abroad to offer professional development classes, health screenings, youth mentoring seminars and business contracting summits on a wider scale.
100 Black Men of Greater Dallas/Fort Worth President Larry Allen, center, laughs while talking with other members during the nonprofit’s Health and Wellness Expo on Sept. 12, 2026. (Courtesy | 100 Black Men of Greater Dallas/Fort Worth)
Through these events, Allen hopes to help young people who have had difficulty navigating their life professionally or economically.
“I grew up on a farm in the country with very limited services,” Allen said. “One of the things I said to myself is, if I made it out, to go back and bring more people along, teach them, expose them to more in life. To give them a better quality of life.”
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/21/free-health-services-and-screenings-offered-at-arlington-health-expo/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Arlington Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=794513&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/21/free-health-services-and-screenings-offered-at-arlington-health-expo/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>