Illinois Valley YMCA hosts Healthy Kids Day

The Illinois Valley YMCA in Peru is hosting its annual Healthy Kids Day event Saturday, April 30, encouraging families to help children be kids and set them up for a summer of success.

The event is free and open to the public.

It will feature a variety of local vendors, children’s games and prizes, Y program demonstrations and a special appearance by the Pistol Shrimp mascot SouthClaw Sam.

The Peru Police Department will host a K-9 demonstration at 9:15 a.m. Other scheduled demonstrations include MBody NMind Yoga at 9 a.m. and tumbling at 10 a.m.

The first 100 children will receive a YMCA goodie bag that includes a two-week Y pass and all children in attendance can sign up to win one of two bicycles (a boys and a girls).

“At the YMCA, we believe in the potential of all children and each day we work to help kids find that potential within themselves,” said Chris Weittenhiller, CEO. “Healthy Kids Day is a fun, free community-wide event to kick off summer and reminds us all how important it is for kids to stay active physically and mentally throughout the summer.”

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2022, Health Kids Day is the Y’s national initiative to improve health and well being for kids and families. The YMCA hopes to use the day to get more children moving and learning, creating healthy habits they can continue while they’re away from the classroom. Healthy Kids Day is reminders to families to ensure all children have access to what they need to reach their full potential, even during out-of-school time.