7th Annual Community Wellness Night held in District 4

September 21, 2018

Christopher Lomahquahu

Gila River Indian News

In a district far, far away...District. 4, the Gila River Health Care Life Center in partnership with Community departments hosted the 7th Annual Community Wellness Night at the District 4 Park on Sept. 13. 

This year’s theme, “May the Health Be with You,” treated families to informational booths, raffle giveaways, a light dinner and a screening of “Star Wars Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back.” They also had a chance to participate in a Jedi Training activity, Tai Chi, a 2 mile walk and 5K fun run. 

The event also focused on Childhood Obesity Month, which is centered around nutrition, physical activities, and diabetes education. 

Increasing in size from last year, the community wellness night was a hit, drawing in 290 participants and 160 individuals, who laced-up their running shoes for the walk and run.

For everyone, who attended the event, they were given a t-shirt, a light lunch, including a raffle that gave away prizes, like hydration packs, blenders and sports equipment. 

Up on a grassy hill overlooking a large inflatable projection screen, attendees sauntered over to find a good spot and view to watch their favorite cast of characters battle for good and evil in the Star Wars universe. 

Youth Education Coordinator Taneesha Watson said the event is about bringing families together for a fun-filled evening. “[We] all got together and created an event that is very family interactive, that gets everyone involved.” 

Part of that involvement includes interactive informational booths from public health nursing, nutrition and public safety. The event offers Community members an opportunity to get to know the programs that provide public health prevention and awareness and other programs that provide services to families. 

Watson said the event has grown from previous years and has added more programs to the list of participants to make the wellness night possible.  

“[This] was just a three-program event, but this year we were able to add three more programs, so we had a lot contributions from the other programs to make it such a great event,” said Watson. 

The idea, is to see the event grow each year, now that this year’s event has seen an increase in collaborative partnerships around community wellness, which opens the door to many ways they can reach out to the Community.

She said, “Nowadays, we see a lot of inspiration from different people by hosting these events,” which can be attributed to building a rapport with the Community and their families. 

Programs, that helped put on the community wellness night were the Communications & Public Affairs Office, Tribal Health Department, Genesis Diabetes Prevention for Children, Akimel O’odham/Pee-Posh Youth Council, Wellness Center, Life Center and District 4.