Healthy kids, happy kids at YMCA

LYNN – More than 300 Lynn youth and their families spent Saturday afternoon learning karate, making yogurt parfaits, doing yoga and even getting their teeth cleaned as part of an annual Healthy Kids Day at the city YMCA.The free event, now in its 10th year in Lynn, is held nationwide and encourages families to participate in healthy activities together, said Tania Buck, the senior director of school age child care and government relations at the Y.View a photo gallery”It’s kind of like a healthy family day,” she said.Every room and every hallway at the YMCA was bustling Saturday with activities such as dance parties, family Zumba classes and track relay races. Nonprofits like the Lynn Community Health Center, Lynn Food and Fitness joined companies like Shaw’s and Polished Dentist, and organizations like Lynn Police and Fire to provide additional information about living healthy.In one of the crowded hallways, 9-year-old Chibuezem Amadi was munching on popcorn and had a Batman mask painted on his face as he and his 3-year-old brother, Kelechim Amadi, headed to see police dogs show off their skills.”I learned that being healthy keeps you healthy,” Chibuezem said, as he noted that his popcorn was free of butter.Buck said health-oriented fairs like Saturday’s are particularly important in immigrant-heavy populations like Lynn’s. She said the obesity rate among Lynn children is at an enormously high 30 percent, and communities like Latinos and Cambodians have some of America’s fastest-growing waistlines.Installing healthy habits in kids at a young age can combat those statistics, she said.”Some of that starts in preschool,” she said.Lynn parent Marina Castaneda said Saturday was a great, free way for her to spend time doing healthy activities with her three children. Being healthy, she said, can be difficult in day-to-day life.”You work and don’t have time to go outside, or to the store,” she said, adding “Buying healthy foods is expensive.”The health lessons will continue at the YMCA well beyond Healthy Kids Day. Buck said the Lynn YMCA has signed onto national healthy eating and physical activity standards that gears every after-school activity toward health. It’s all a part of the YMCA doing its job in the community, she said.”People see this place as being very welcoming,” she said.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].