Kids play, dance, learn at health fair
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
PABLO — Kids were dancing, kids were playing double ball, kids were learning about correct hand washing and teeth brushing and kids were planting peppers and beans at the children’s health fair on April 30.
The health fair came about because Salish Kootenai College Bachelor of Science in Nursing students Jamie Lozeau, Terinee McCready, Geof Rohrlach and Heather Schildt did a community assessment to determine children’s needs.
After talking to people at cafes, schools and the Boys and Girls Club, looking at child development and prevention of childhood obesity and diabetes, they settled on good nutrition for children as a topic. They decided to host a kid’s health fair at the Joe McDonald Health and Fitness Center, incorporating activity, fun and learning.
“To learn,” Rohrlach said, “you need achievement and respect, fun and freedom.”
About 60 third graders from Pablo Elementary School and all grades from Nkw’usm, the Salish immersion school in Arlee, came for the two-hour program.
Volunteers split the children into four groups with colored ribbon bracelets, using Salish words for the colors. Rohrlach handled gardening, Schildt and Lozeau worked with hygiene and McCready worked with food groups, coordinated the event and kept kids moving from site to site.
At a field east of the Joe McDonald Fitness Center, a group of children played a rough and tumble game of double ball.
Mike Tryon from the Salish Kootenai College Fitness Center came to explain the rules and referee.
What’s not to love about a game with sticks, running and trying to throw a double ball over the crossbar?
In regular double ball, Tryon said, it is a mile from goal to goal, but he shortened the court length for the kids. It’s a Native American game that’s fun, but it’s also good exercise and builds up wind and muscles, according to Tryon.
Instead of running on the vegetation, Rorhlach taught students how to pot plants, how to care for them and what sort of vegetables would grow from their tiny plant. Rohrlach had vegetables such as red and yellow peppers and squash on hand for the kids to see, and a few lucky children took them home for treats.
An experienced gardener, LouRasia Weatherwax has her own farm and has grown carrots, but she dived right into the dirt with the other kids.
Clutching two peat pots with green plants in them, Jordan Gatch described his vegetable starts.
“One is beans, and I forgot,” he said.
Inside the building, Naomi Billedeaux-Meyers and Dominic Meyers taught a Native American dance class. Naomi brought a shawl to show the girls how to fold it on their right arm for traditional dance and how to hold it for a shawl dance.
Dominic brought a boy-sized bustle for a prairie chicken dance, and boys got a turn dancing with the bustle on as they all learned prairie chicken moves.
When the music started, the Meyers’ began with a round dance where everyone joins in, whether they have an outfit or not, and taught the kids the step.
“We always dance counterclockwise on the Flathead Reservation,” Naomi said.
The kids headed back to school with plants, some exercise under their belt, information on how to eat right, brush their teeth and wash their hands, and a coupon for a free apple for snack time.
