For 13-year-old Sami Dulam, charity starts at home.

With the help of her parents, Dr. Vikram Dulam and Dr. Vidya Kamalapur, the family collaborated on how they could bring a health fair to Natchez.

“I’ve been wanting to help the community for a long time,” Sami Dulam said. “In my heart I just want to do what’s best.”

With the help of her classmates, Sami Dulam offered free health screenings at St. Mary Basilica’s Family Life Center on Main Street Saturday. St. Mary Basilica and Cathedral School’s seventh grade class sponsored the event. Local residents came to have their blood pressure checked, body mass index measured and bone density checked. Other screenings looked at blood glucose levels, lipid profiles and cholesterol levels.

Volunteers from Cathedral School, Dr. Charles Borum’s clinic, Merit Health Natchez along with Dr. Samir Gautam volunteered their time.

Sami Dulam’s mother, Dr. Kamalapur, said Sami’s proactive and community-minded attitude is typical of her daughter and that she and her husband are very proud.

“She is a very caring and loving person,” Kamalapur said, “She plans ahead and works for it.”

Sami Dulam said she already had a couple ideas on how she could improve the health fair next year, with more advertising and trying to schedule it on a day when less events are scheduled in town.

“The feeling you get from helping people, it’s my favorite,” Sami Dulam said.

She is also involved in cross country, ballet, softball, dance team, track and basketball. Sami Dulam said she hopes to be a doctor in sports medicine one day.