Now in its fourth year, the children’s health festival operated by the Community Mental Health Initiative is looking into expanding the service beyond the summer months.
The festival is directed towards kids between the ages of five- and 12-years-old and teaches them positive lifestyle and decision-making skills through a series of fun activities.
There were 22 bookings for the educational children’s event in the Corner Brook and Bay of Islands area this summer, although four of those events had to be cancelled or had poor turnouts.
This was the first year for Tara Slade, CMHI’s new mental health promotions coordinator, as the festival facilitator.
“Coming into this position, I was able to look at how the festival was done in previous years and there was a pretty good foundation developed for me to be able to continue it on,” said Slade at the most recent festival in Meadows, which unfortunately was one of the poorly attended events. “When I called many of the places where the festivals had been previously, they were very excited to have us return for another year.”
The festival is done in three different ways. It can be set up for established groups of kids, such as the annual summer camps at Grenfell Campus or those at the Humber Community YMCA. The festival has set up at normally well-attended events such as the Corner Brook Day festivities at Margaret Bowater Park.
Thirdly, the organizers will call various outlying towns and communities to see if they would like the festival to come to a venue in their area, as was the case in Meadows.
“It’s hit or miss at those sometimes, but you just do your best to promote it and keep your fingers crossed,” said Slade.
This weekend, the festival has its final scheduled booking at a celebration being planned by SonRise Ministries in Corner Brook.
“We are looking to expand the festival into the fall and I am planning to contact different community groups like the Girl Guides and Scouts and schools to see if they would like to avail of this service and educational opportunity,”said Slade.
The topics covered at the festival include bullying, self-esteem, healthy eating and active lifestyle. Children learn more about these issues through games, a puppet show and other activities.
“We organize different activities we think would be appropriate for the age group they have at these sessions and what we think would work best for them,” said Slade.
There is no fee charged for any group that would like the festival to come entertain and educate their children’s group and no admission fee is charged for the kids who attend. All that is needed is a venue.
Anyone interested in booking the festival can contact Slade by calling the CMHI office at 634-4321 or via email at cmhi.mhp@gmail.com.
