GREENVILLE — The Darke County YMCA held their annual Healthy Kids Day event Saturday to help keep kids in the mind frame of being active and maintain healthy choices throughout the summer.
The event featured several activities spread out into different rooms for children to enjoy such as fitness bingo with the winner receiving a t-shirt, face painting, exercise challenges, such as jumping up and over steps, to test agility and speed, and designing a healthy snack. Outside there was a bouncy house and a tricycle race.
Help Me Grow was on hand to provide screenings for children up to three years old. They test the development of the child depending on their age group, to ensure they are on the right track.
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Shelby and Darke County were there as well, they are a mentoring program that partners children with volunteers who make big impacts on their lives. The children are range between 5 through 16 years of age.
Another business from the community was Johnston Chiropractic. They offer chiropractic services for everyone, even children. They can start getting chiropractic services at birth. Dr. Jessica Clark, a doctor at the clinic says she has been getting adjusted since she was born. She said it is great for children for several reasons.
“It helps boost their immune system, so they don’t get sick as often or a frequent.”
She also said it can help with numerous ailments such as colic, bed wetting, ear infections, ADHD, asthma, constipation, sleeplessness, breastfeeding. The pressure applied to children is likened to the pressure someone would apply to test for a ripened tomato, said Clark.
“It’s just great for children in general. It helps with all different kinds of things that most people don’t think about,” said Clark.
Kids were treated with a healthy snack from Family Health, which they could also help design.
Katie Roberts, Child Development Center Director; said this has been a YMCA initiative for a while, with a big presence of the community over the last three years. She took part in the room with fitness bingo and was the face painter of the day.
She said her favorite part of the event was “seeing the kids happy, learning, getting exercise and just having a fun time.”
“I hope more people come out next year, too. It’s an annual event and we’ll be looking forward to it next April.”
