The Children’s Health Fair in February was filled with families. Children laughed and squealed during the Miss Judy Show while parents enjoyed activities, free expert advice and gifts.

“Jonah’s friend was so proud of the stickers and the toothbrush he got at the Children’s Health Fair. It’s a good thing there is another one coming up on March 12,” says Leila Hartford.

“Because once Jonah saw the loot and heard about Miss Judy’s show – it became a must-do activity.” The Campbell River Family Network

 will be at the Children’s Health Fair, at the Robron Centre on March 12, en masse. The Health Fair is a good example of how diverse the Family Network is, and how closely the members work together to make events like this successful.

The Family Network includes representatives from Aboriginal Infant Development, Building Blocks, Child Care, Early Childhood Development, government, business, School District #72 and Success by 6. All of these organizations.

In turn, have broad representation from a huge variety of organizations in our community. If we were to look at six degrees of separation there would be no doubt that most of our community organizations are connected to the Family Network in some way.  

The Family Network is a strong coalition with a goal of strengthening our community for families.

“If we don’t have healthy families we don’t have a healthy community,” says Cheryl Jordan, Success By 6 coordinator. “This is why Success By 6 started the Family Network and why we participate in the Children’s Health Fair.”

“I’m looking forward to the health fair and not just for the stickers,” says Hartford with a smile. “The free vision, dental, developmental and speech screenings will be very helpful – it’s not very often you have so many experts in one room.”

The next Children’s Health Fair is Friday, at Robron Centre from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This is one of a series of articles about the CR Family Network (www.crfamilynetwork.ca). The CR Family Network works to strengthen the capacity and commitment of the communities in the Campbell River Region to help young children.  Research shows that children do better when their families feel connected to their community. In turn, communities do better when their young children thrive.