TWO EVENTS come together for the first time this year, offering participants the chance to learn more about healthy living at all ages.
The Relay for Life and the Early Years Family Fair are being held at Skeena Junior Secondary on the same day and since both are about healthy lifestyles, they complement each other well, say organizers.
The idea behind the fair is to promote healthy development during the early years of a child’s life and the Relay for Life is all about having a healthy lifestyle and active living.
“Prevention is cure if you start early, hopefully we see success,” says Helen Owen of the local branch of the cancer society.
Holding both events at the same place allows many service providers, who are on relay teams to also be able to go to the fair and not have to spend a limited time at each event, says Owen.
“We always start off with the survivor lap. Perhaps some survivors attending the fair are not aware of the relay and if they’re here early, they can be part of the survivor lap too,” says Owen, adding fair-goers can take a walk around the track without having to register to do so.
A white board will be set up at the edge of the track to list the additional relay events, such as demonstrations of yoga, zoomba, kick boxing and belly dancing and everyone is welcome to come try out the demos, she says.
Another part of the relay will be the showing of the movie Chemical Reaction, the story of the first community in Canada that fought to get a ban against cosmetic pesticides, says Owen, adding Terrace is the first community in northern BC to pass an anti-cosmetic pesticide law.
Owen reminds relay participants that they can walk or run but bikes, skateboards and inline skates are not allowed; strollers are allowed.
Sasa Loggin of Terrace Make Children First Network says the fair is free and the only things that will cost money are buying items or buying food from the vendors on-site.
“It’s a good fit,” says Loggin about the relay and fair being at the same place at the same time.
The fair will include information on healthy development, literacy, child care and family programs, says Loggin. And everybody gets a free book and a bag of items to take home,.
Sometimes people don’t see early learning as important in a child’s life if they don’t have children but everything for life is 80 per cent set in the first five years, says Loggin, adding that as a parent, she decided to eat healthier to be a role model for her children.
Dave Crawley, vice-principal of Skeena Junior, says he’s been trying to get students involved in the relay too.
“One of the things I really enjoy about the relay being here is it brings the community together.,” he says, adding he sees people at track every year that he might otherwise see only once or twice a year.
The Early Years Family Fair takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 14 at the Skeena Junior gym. The Relay for Life goes from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on the Skeena Junior track on the same day.
Since there will be a lot of traffic and people, and parking only on one side of Walsh Ave., those driving to the events are asked to consider parking in the Caledonia Senior Secondary parking lot or at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre and walking one block to Skeena.