The Boys and Girls Club of Central Virginia is doing its part to make future generations happy and healthy, by hosting their annual health fair. More than 200 kids attended the event, which was held at the Boys and Girls Club on Cherry Avenue in Charlottesville on Friday.
The University of Virginia's Children's Hospital sponsors this event every year to promote health awareness at a young age. Although the people taking part in the fair are still kids, they are already aware of how important their health is.
"It's just the way of life," said Rakim Al-Hajj, a fifth grader from Stone Robinson Elementary School, who's in the Boys and Girls Club. The most popular event was Zumba, a new addition to the health fair this year.
"Zumba is a recognized way to get physical activity and a way to have fun," said UVA Pediatrician Nancy McDaniel.
But that was just one of many activities kids got to take part in. UVA physicians were on hand doing free sports physicals, measuring the kids height, weight, and BMI, teaching them about being healthy, and just keeping them active with games, sports, and activities.
"These kids, they're the health of our nation. They're the ones that we want to teach to be healthy and so they're modeling here what they need to use for the rest of their life," McDaniel said.
And James Pierce, the director of the central Virginia Boys and Girls Club agrees. "It's so important they take with them what they learn now all the way through to when they're adults," he said.
Organizers say that they hope that programs like these will help kids to make their own informed decisions about health and nutrition at a young age.
