Health Fair Targets Childhood Obesity

healthfairA fall health fair is hoping to educate area youth and their parents about health and physical activity.

The Knox Winamac Community Health Center is hosting the event on October 15th with the goal of getting kids active. Executive Director Kathy Robb says the health fair should also give attendees a better sense of their body’s current physical health.

“We know that childhood obesity is a real problem in our country,” says Robb. “So we wanted to reach out a little bit and do a little education about childhood obesity.”

A lot of the health fair surrounds activities for the children in attendance that will get them up and moving as opposed to their usual entertainment activities such as video games or television.

Parents attending along with their children will have different lessons such as talks with area physicians. Those presenting will cover topics such as diabetes, exercise, and heart and cardiovascular care. Dentistry will also be addressed with parents inluding those who want to visit a medicaid dentist.

Robb says screenings will also be offered throughout the course of the day.

“We will be doing glucose screenings, body mass index screenings where we do the height and weight of people and let them know what their body mass is,” says Robb. “We’re going to be doing pulse ox so we can do the oxygen level on people as well. So hopefully these things will help them understand where they’re at with their body and their need for exercise.”

The health fair will run between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at the Community Health Center.