Atmore Area YMCA and more than 1,600 other Y’s across the nation will host their annual Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 29.
Healthy Kids Day, which is designed to encourage youngsters to stay active and to continue learning during the summer, will be a two-pronged event that includes a 5K walk, run and bike and numerous other activities.
Children of all ages may participate in the 5K, which begins at 7:30 a.m. and continues from the local Y’s Pensacola Avenue headquarters, to Tom Byrne Park. Participants can run, walk or ride their bicycles.
At 9 a.m., Y CEO Paul Chason will deliver his opening comments, with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance to follow. Mayor Jim Staff will speak, then a group of dancers from A.C. Moore Elementary School will perform the YMCA song.
Activities to follow include egg and spoon races, jump rope, potato sack races, hula hoops and tug-of-war. There will be a bouncy house, sand art, paper airplane building and distance contest, plaster-mold painting, volleyball, Jenga and HedBanz.
The Golden Dragons Tae Kwan Do class will put on a demonstration, and presentations will be made by Sav-A-Life Resource Center, Girl Scouts, American Red Cross, Concerned Citizens of Atmore, Child Abuse Prevention and Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce.
Deputy Jeff Weaver of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office will be on hand, and Samantha Bennett of the Atmore Police Department will fingerprint children whose parents give permission.
Organizers expect the event to wind down around 1 p.m.