Focus of the Fall Family Festival

The Fall Family Festival joins families in the community to focus on important matters related to children's health. In appearance, the Fall Family Festival would resemble any autumnal celebration. Face painting, balloon artists, and scarecrows would welcome participants. The theme of the event, however, would center on children's health. Fun and educational activities, like brushing pumpkins' teeth and healthy food tasting, would promote health awareness and motivate positive health behaviors.

Children would learn about health risks and positive health behaviors through participation in games and activities. Unhealthy treats would be replaced with healthy alternatives, like apple slices and trail mix. Families would learn about My Plate, a visual recommendation by the USDS on how to create a balanced and healthy meal. Children would be provided age-appropriate information about health in the form of coloring pages to take home and complete with their families. Adults would provide more detailed information as well as exposure to service providers in the community who cater to children's health needs.

Since fitness is a vital component of health, there would be several opportunities to exercise and get active at the Family Fall Festival. Among these would be exposure to the President's newly designed fitness test. Children, their siblings, and parents could participate in basic exercises for fun and light-hearted competition. Overall, the Fall Family Festival would offer children and their families a number of fun and memorable booths and activities with the shared purpose of spreading important information and practicing useful health-related skills.

Goals of the Fall Family Festival

The Fall Family Festival is a community event intended to raise awareness and offer opportunities to practice positive health behaviors. A children's health fair for school age children would address the following goals: 1) Provide optional immunizations (i.e. the influenza vaccine) for children and their families in attendance 2) Teach health-related self-care practices, like teeth brushing and hand washing 3) Motivate participants to make positive health behavior changes.

Additional goals of the children's health fair event would focus on community engagement with local practitioners and clinics that provide health-related services in the area. Parents would be invited to ask relevant questions about local services and practitioners would be able to interact with local service recipients. For children who may be fearful about visiting a doctor or dentist, the health fair could serve to decrease these fears.

The final goal of the children's health fair would focus on information dissemination. Age appropriate information and experiential learning opportunities would offer children the chance to learn about a number of potential health hazards and how to improve their overall health-related behaviors. Parents and other adults in attendance would be provided information in written form to read during the fair and take home with them. Although not a specific goal related to this event, a children's health fair would serve the additional purpose of providing and wholesome activity for the entire family to enjoy.