On Thursday, December 3rd, IU Health La Porte Hospital provided fun for the whole family at their first ever Winter Wellnessland at The Crossing in La Porte. The family friendly event was centered around staying healthy and having fun while celebrating the holiday season.
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“The whole idea behind it is to give families some fun opportunities to celebrate the holidays in a healthy way,” said Stacey Kellogg, Public Information Officer with IU Health La Porte Hospital. “My favorite part of the event is the exhibit that talks about holiday stress busters and the “Pay It Forward” concept. There're some ideas there about how families can give back if they’re one of the more fortunate ones celebrating the holidays.”
“There are easy, simple and free things you can do to help reduce your stress this time of year,” Kellogg said. “With the ‘Pay It Forward’ workshop they had ideas and ways to give back like collecting you worn or gently used clothing and donating them. By doing that as a family, you can teach your children the power of giving back and use the holiday time to boost that concept. Those acts alone reduce stress. If you’ve done something good you feel good about it and it’s free!”
Through the Winter Wellnessland, IU Health La Porte Hospital sought to show how good health can be fun. Thor Thordarson, President/CEO of IU Health La Porte, spoke about their mission to make living well and exercising something that is enjoyable and a part of everyone’s daily life.
“Good health can be fun,” Thordarson said. “It’s so hard to be healthy and fit if it’s a chore. If it’s fun and you’re playing you forget. The folks here are fantastic about bringing out the kid in everybody and that really helps people stay fit.”
“That’s what these events, like the Winter Wellnessland, are all about,” said Thordarson. “Through the parks prescription program (Get Fit RxTrail program) we have the world’s largest gymnasium out there and it’s totally free. Kids are playing in nature and our parks have fantastic equipment to play on and we have stuff for adults to play on as well. The kids just love the trails and that’s really what it’s about. Sometimes we have to encourage them to get away from the couch and video games but once they’re outside they love it. All this stuff is meant to help our community and to get healthy at the same time.”
Along with tips to reduce stress this time of year and ways families can give back, the Winter Wellnessland provided a myriad of activities for kids. Katie Sarver, Manager of Wellness Outreach, coordinated the event and spoke about all the great things the evening had to offer.
“We have Santa here doing free pictures with the kids and we’re taking donations for the Salvation Army,” Sarver said. “There’s a craft area so that kids could do fun, easy crafts with their parents and siblings. We also had a wellness Scavenger hunt for the kids where you get the clue, look for the picture that coincides with the clue and then do the fitness activity that’s related to it. We tried to bring all the different aspects and showing how the holidays can be fun and healthy. It’s been tons of fun and we’re hoping to make it an annual event.”
For more information on all the great events and services that IU Health La Porte Hospital offers, go to http://iuhealth.org/laporte/