27 May
by Derrick Vander Waal
SIOUX CENTER – Take a stroll. Read a favorite children’s book. And do fun fitness activities.
SIOUX CENTER – Take a stroll. Read a favorite children’s book. And do fun fitness activities.
You can check all three items off your list by participating in a Story Walk with your children at Children’s Park in Sioux Center.
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| Sioux Center Christian School first-grade teacher Trena Van Wyk reads information off one of the Story Walk signs while her students gather around at Children’s Park in Sioux Center. |
“Curious George Plants a Seed” by H.A. Rey is posted page by page in English and Spanish on 15 signs along the recreational trail in the park. Each sign includes a family health tip and suggested activities, ranging from lunge walk steps to karate kicks, that participants can do while walking roughly 20 steps between each sign.
The signs – which were prepared by the Sioux Center Community Group, which is under the umbrella of the Coalition for a Healthy Sioux County – will remain up at the park through Tuesday, June 2.
“This was just another way for us to get kids out and moving and to give something for families to do,” said Brittany Hamm, clinic manager for Promise Community Health Center in Sioux Center and a coalition committee member.
Coalition for a Healthy Sioux County and the Sioux Center Community Group – both groups that Promise Community Health Center participates in – have selected childhood obesity as a focus area to address.
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| Sioux Center Christian School first-graders do push-ups as one of the activities for the Story Walk at Children’s Park in Sioux Center. The Story Walk will remain up at the park through Tuesday, June 2, for people to enjoy. |
Story Walk projects have been, or will be, conducted in a few communities in the county as one specific project under that priority.
“We each have done different books, so the hope would be that these books can rotate through the different communities so that everyone can do different ones in the future,” Hamm said.
The first- and second-grade classes from Sioux Center Christian School enjoyed the Story Walk this afternoon (Wednesday, May 27), and Sioux County Latino Health Coalition members plan to have their families participate on Tuesday.
Sioux Center Christian first-grader Olivia Hofland and her classmates loved it.
“Awesome!” she said, emphatically, as she raised her arms. “It told the story, and you exercised with it. It helped you to be a healthy person by taking care of the world and planting plants.”
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| One of the 15 signs as part of the Story Walk at Children’s Park in Sioux Center. |
Their teachers agreed.
“This is a fantastic activity. I would hope that they would do it every year,” first-grade teacher Jill Van Soelen said. “I love that it incorporated healthy tips for families. It incorporated activities for kids to do, so it was active and interactive. And it used children’s literature, so we could promote reading alongside of it.”
Anyone – whether an individual or part of a class, an organization or a family – are encouraged to stop by Children’s Park to do the Story Walk at their leisure.
“It’s open at any time and completely free,” Hamm said. “It will be in the park, and it will be in place for a week.”
Promise Community Health Center, headquartered in Sioux Center, is the only Federally Qualified Health Center in the far northwest corner of Iowa. To learn more, visit www.promisechc.org.
