Children’s Health Fair to take place Saturday
Just weeks before the start of the 2010-11 school year, Pine Island Cares will host a special health fair just for children and their families. On Saturday, July 31, specialists and health related organizations will be on hand to provide health related education, free immunizations, kids activities and more. The event will take place at the Pine Island United Methodist Church across the street from the Matlacha-Pine Island Fire Station #1 at the island center from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The event will be presented with the assistance of island and county non-profit organizations including the Beacon of HOPE, Pine Island FISH, the Pine Island Food Pantry, the United Way and Lee County Health Department.
Free immunizations provided by Lee County Health Department will be for children 18 and under and will be administered from 9 a.m. until noon at the church. In addition, numerous quest speakers will be on hand to present parenting classes, grandparenting classes, nutrition classes, skin care, learning how to read and assess for reading disorders and more. Activities for the children will include a tour of the fire station, games, free food and entertainment provided by Guitar Steve.
“We will be setting aside a special area we call the kid’s zone where the children can play games like bean bag toss, get their faces painted, have balloon animals made for them and participate in a variety of arts and crafts,” said Pine Island Cares member Betsy Haesemeyer. “We will even accommodate babies so that parents and grandparents can attend some of the free seminars while we entertain and care for their children. This way, everyone can stay at the event for as long as they want.”
The children also will be offered a free swimming at the Pine Island Public Pool.
“We will be opening the pool to island children at 2 p.m.,” said Aquatic Specialist, Sandy Reynolds. “This will be a good opportunity for children to come and enjoy the pool during a supervised swim and learn more about the programs that the pool has to offer.”
Also on hand will be several vendors as well as FISH and the Pine Island Food Pantry to offer information about the various services they provide.
All day food and beverages will be served for free by members of Pine Island Cares.
“We will begin the day serving breakfast burritos and probably switch over to lunch burritos at noon time,” said Haesemeyer. “We also will have juices, water and coffee free of charge and other food venders will be at the event preparing other dishes for sale at very reasonable prices.”
Volunteers from the after school program, SAS, will be present to explain the program to parents with elementary school children and members from the Beacon on HOPE will have needs assessment forms and other vital information.
“One important thing we are asking people to do during the event is to register themselves and family members in our hurricane data base,” Haesemeyer said. “For those who are not currently registered or perhaps need to update this information are encouraged to come to the Kids Health Fair. This information is crucially important and since it is hurricane season, now is a good time to get into the system.”
The hurricane data base maintained by the Beacon of HOPE contains important information that will be passed on to first responders in the event of an emergency. The information about each household is kept confidential and is used as a first response tool for rescue services.
“On the hurricane registration form, we ask those filling them out as to whether or not they plan to evacuate during a hurricane. This way first responders will proceed to properties where they may find disaster victims first saving valuable time and getting assistance to those who may need it quickly,” Haesemeyer said.
For more information abut the Pine Island Cares about Kids Health Fair, call the Beacon of HOPE at 283-5123.