“When I first heard about this even, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a no-brainer! A perfect opportunity to provide health education for kids in a family-friendly environment that will be fun!” says Chantelle Simmons, CREATION Life Kids director for the Hood View Church.
Parent JoAnna Boruck was also enthusiastic. “It was, a totally kid-centered day of fun and laughter and learning about health.”
The program was born in Florida as part AdventHealth’s commitment to help kids choose to live healthy lives. CREATION Life focuses on eight principles of healthful living: Choice, Rest, Environment, Activity, Trust in Divine Power, Interpersonal Relationships, Outlook and Nutrition. When the families arrived at the Hood View Adventist School gymnasium they were registered and sent off in small groups to circle through eight active learning centers.
Each of the learning centers was staffed by trained volunteers who led the 50 kids and their families through a couple interactive games related to their area of health.
“My favorite was where we learned how to plant the cactus,” said Hannah “But I liked the one where I learned about stretching and jumping too.”
Jamba Juice gave out free smoothie cards, physical therapist Mark Christensen gave free physical therapy evaluations, and doctors John Gobble and John Griffin answered questions about health.
“One of the goals of this event was to get families connected to resources that would help them thrive (cooking classes, parenting seminar, nutrition counseling, etc.)", says Chantelle. "Now we have a database of families who have expressed interest in wanting to learn more about health, including their surveys letting us know more specifically what they are interested in learning.”
“This is the first of many CREATION Life Kids events that will be happening around Oregon,” says Children’s Ministry director, Shirley Allen. “Everyone, including the 35 volunteers, had a good time and went home with prizes, cookbooks, and new knowledge about the best way to live.”
Chantelle is already looking forward to the next one. “It’s an easy and fun event, and it’ll be fun to do it again, even better!
