THE Division of Youth Services and the Parent Leadership Month organizing committee on Friday hosted physical fitness activities for children and their parents at the Kagman Community Center.
Hundreds of children along with their parents participated in the various events, which included an obstacle course, a basketball clinic, an exercise fitness program and other outdoor activities.
Overseeing the activities were the officers and staffers of the Kagman Health Center, the Immunization Program, the Non-Communicable Disease Bureau, Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Services, and NMC’s Project Proa.
Each of them put up booths that provided different activities and services to children and their parents.
DYS Director Vivian Sablan said the event was the first of a series of activities that will be launched by the Parent Leadership Month Committee.
The goal is to go to the villages and engage families in interactive activities involving physical fitness.
“So we bring the children and their families together, set up different activities including health screening to promote health and nutrition,” Sablan said.
“As we know, most of the kids were away from school for a long time, locked in their homes, and maybe had been eating a little bit here and there. So what we want to do is kind of reverse that and get our kids back into a healthy lifestyle with their family members,” she said.
During the event on Friday, she noted that the children were obviously having fun and were excited to perform physical activities they had not been doing for a while.
But it doesn’t stop there, Sablan said, adding that the plan is to host the same event in the other villages.
Jolene Mettao, an NMC student, took part in organizing the event as part of her 640-hour internship.
“Everybody has been inside a lot throughout the Covid-19 outbreak. So having something outside where families and kids can come and have fun and do physical activities with one another can just encourage people to do physical activities more often,” she said.
A basic basketball clinic is conducted for boys at the Kagman Community Center on Friday.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
A boy joins a jumping rope session at the Kagman Community Center on Friday.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
Daughters and mothers participate in physical fitness activity at the Kagman Community Center on Friday as part of the Division of Youth Services’ Parent Leadership Month celebration.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
