Parents will be able to bring their children to a fair this weekend with a focus on improving their health and well-being.
The Wrangell Early Childhood Coalition, which is an organization comprised of about 30 local businesses, individuals or other organizations, is hosting its first Wrangell Children’s Fair on Saturday. Coalition Chair Krissy Smith said children ages 0-8 are invited to take part.
“We have some vision screenings. The Lions Club is coming down, which can do vision screenings for 0 and up. And we have some early childhood hearing screenings for 0-3 that will be there. We have a lot of resource booths. We’re going to have a lot of activity tables and just a little bit of everything,” she said.
Along with the eye and ear screenings, there will be information on childcare providers and other parent resources in town. There will be a Teddy Bear clinic, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts information, Imagination Library and support from the public library as well. Smith said the point of the fair is to bring all the service providers to one spot so parents and the community as a whole know where to go.
“We had done some surveys and it was found that there’s resources and people aren’t connecting to the resources, and this was the best way that we could figure out to get everybody involved,” she said.
According to the coalition, research shows that for every dollar invested now to improve the health and well-being of children ages 0-5, $7 is returned to society. Smith said the mission for the organization is to equip children with the tools to succeed when they start school.
“There are many resources that people don’t know about and I guarantee if parents come out, or even community members come out, they’re going to see things that they didn’t know existed. And I would urge community members in general to just come out and show your support for early childhood,” she said.
The fair will be at the Evergreen Elementary School Saturday Oct. 20 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. All activities are free and participants could win door prizes.
