This Saturday, Main Street Bath will partner with Access Health and the Bath Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee to put on a fair that will offer self-care information and opportunities in the city of Bath.

The first annual ANCHOR Fair — the acronym stands for “activity, nutrition, community, health, outdoors and relaxation — will take place downtown from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Many activities will be centered around the Bath Freight Shed on the waterfront at 27 Commercial St., with displays by self-care and wellness-focused businesses. Activities include hikes and bicycle trips, free yoga and massage, healthful food demonstrations, relaxation techniques, open houses and a downtown “wellness” scavenger hunt.

Two guided one-hour hikes in Bath’s Thorne Head nature preserve will be led by the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, with buses leaving the Freight Shed at 9:30 and 10:45 a.m. to transport hikers.

Members of the Bath Bike/Ped Committee will lead 5- and 10-mile bike rides which will leave from the Freight Shed at 11 a.m. The Main Street Bath Wellness Committee will lead a 1- mile “Shipbuilders Route” walk through downtown at 11:30 a.m. A Dahlov Ipcar-themed “Storybook Walk” will depart from the Freight Shed at 9:30 a.m. and noon.

Around the downtown, a free yoga class will be offered at Water Street Yoga at 10:30 a.m., and Smoothie-making will be demonstrated at Now You’re Cooking at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. An open house at Tony Dance and Fitness Studio from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. will include a raffle and free-class passes redeemable all week; and an open house at InspireME Personal Fitness & Wellness from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. will include free chair massage on the lawn of the Customs House.

All activities are free and open to the public. The full schedule of events will be available at the Bath Freight Shed on Saturday.

Main Street Bath will also distribute a new walking/biking trail map and wellness guide brochure designed for the use of Bath businesses and the greater community.

At the grassroots level, an evolution in thinking about health care has been taking place, as public-private partnerships and, more importantly, personal choices focus increasingly on “wellness” rather than treatment as the key to good health and well-being.

An example of this is the Maine Development Foundation’s new Healthy Maine Streets initiative — a program of the Maine Downtown Center funded by a grant from the U.S> Center for Disease Control and Prevention to promote workplace wellness.

The program is being piloted in Main Street Maine communities, where our connections to the business community, network of volunteers and partnerships with other like-minded organizations make us “shovel ready” for this expansion of our role.

As a participant, Main Street Bath has enlisted downtown businesses and local wellnessbased service providers to collaborate in creating a plan to advance workplace and community wellness in Bath through improved nutrition, increased activity, tobacco avoidance and stress reduction.

Expanding our activities to include the advancement of work place and community wellness fits comfortably within Main Street Bath’s mission to build community pride and enhance quality of life through support of downtown Bath.

Our position that a healthy, vibrant downtown reflects a healthy community gains a new, more literal meaning through the Healthy Maine Streets “workplace wellness” initiative. The payoff includes a boost in productivity through a healthier, more motivated workforce.

On Oct. 1, enrollment will open in Maine and across the country in the new health care exchanges that are part of the Affordable Care Act. Regardless of what people think of this national health care reform law, few disagree that the rising cost of health care has placed a heavy burden on small businesses and individuals.

As the drama plays out at the government level, it’s comforting to know there is something we have control over, something we can do as individuals to make an impact, reduce our own health care costs, and contribute to a sea change in health care at the national level.

And while the new health insurance exchanges may take some guidance to navigate, the “wellness” path to improved health is straightforward enough for almost anyone to follow: eat more healthful foods, be more active and reduce exposure to tobacco.

Here’s to first steps.

JENNIFER GEIGER is executive director of Main Street Bath.