Healthy Families Festival this weekend at Ian Deutch

The Nye Communities Coalition, in partnership with Southwest Medical Associates, plans to host the second annual Healthy Families Festival this weekend at Ian Deutch Memorial Park.

The festival, according to the NyECC, is all about “moving, learning and trying something new,” and will boast a variety of health and safety related activities for people of all ages to try at the event.

Last year Tim Wigchers, communications and resource development coordinator for NyECC, said approximately 300 people attended the first ever Healthy Families Festival. The organization hopes to grow upon that success going in to this year’s event.

Among the activities planned for this year’s festival are demonstrations on the proper installation of car seats by the NyECC Child Safety Seat Task Force, a youth building workshop put on by the local Home Depot and other activities, including a walk for suicide prevention and a walk with a doctor from Southwest Medical Associates.

The Walk in Memory, Walk for Hope suicide awareness three-mile walk, which was a reported success during last year’s event, will again be going on throughout this weekend’s festival. Those interested in walking for suicide prevention or supporting the cause can register for the walk beginning at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning or by visiting www.nvsuicideprevention.org before the event.

The walk is free, but donations are accepted and appreciated and all funds will go to the Nevada Coalition for Suicide Prevention.

Attendants of this year’s Healthy Families Festival will also have the chance once again to participate in the “Walk with a Doc” program hosted by the physicians of Southwest Medical Associates.

Dr. Nancy Yu, division chief of SMA’s Pahrump clinic, said the “Walk with a Doc” event was a success last year, drawing in a number of participants and their families.

“We had a great turnout last year,” she said. “Approximately I would say at least 70 senior patients, but probably more than that in terms of families.”

During this year’s festival, Yu said the local Southwest Medical Associates office will have a number of its providers present to speak with people about the benefits of walking and exercise.

“With those who attend this year’s festival we will have providers able to join them and talk briefly about the health benefits of outdoor exercise or indoor exercise, but mainly just about walking in general,” she said. “At the event we will have several of our providers – Dr. Lee, our cardiologist, myself, Dr. Leviseur, Dr. Tse, Dr. Johnson and we’ll also have Roslyn Collins, who is our endocrinology specialist out there and her specialty is diabetes.”

In addition to the walks the doctors plan to conduct throughout the park during the festival, Yu said the physician group will also be offering a number of giveaways to those who attend the event as well.

“We want everybody to come, it’s open to the public. It’s a way for all of us to exercise and talk about the health benefits of walking,” she said. “For the walk in the park with a doc we’re also going to have giveaways for people who come and I know that Nye Communities Coalition, we’re doing this together, they’ll have other vendors there as well. It’s also just a great way to meet the doctors out there, even if they’re not used to walking a lot. It’s a great way to socialize and meet us.”

In addition to various groups and organizations planning to provide activities and information at this year’s festival, the local VFW will also be in attendance to conduct a food drive for their local food pantry as well.

According to NyECC, the food pantry is heavily reliant upon support from the community to continue serving local individuals and at this point in time is running low on items to supply to those that rely upon them.

Tane Owens, a VetCorps volunteer with NyECC, said in a statement about the event that the VFW was asking festival-goers to “please bring non-perishable food items when you come to the festival this weekend,” to help the VFW in their mission to continue serving Pahrump.

The Healthy Families Festival will be open to the community this Saturday, Sept. 14, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the center of Ian Deutch Memorial Park.

For more information contact Tane Owens by phone at 775-727-9970 or tane@nyecc.org.