BANGOR, Maine — Bouncy castles and snow cones arrived at the Bangor Region YMCA on Sunday for the first “Healthy Kids Day” since 2019.
The event, which drew dozens of families, also featured informational tables by organizations and companies like Northern Light Health, Hannaford, and Rape Response Services.
For organizers, the kid-friendly activities and parent-oriented informational booths served as part of a larger mission.
“We’re bringing generations together. That’s the important part of what the Y can do for a full family,” Diane Dickerson, the CEO of the Bangor Region YMCA, told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Dickerson said a community approach and programming is important to tackling the issue of youth health and wellness, an area of concern in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
“Our children have far more behavioral issues, far more anxiety issues, than prior to COVID,” Dickerson added.
This comes as recent research presents a grim state of mental health for children. According to one study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, global levels of anxiety and depression among youth may have doubled since the beginning of the pandemic.
To combat this and other problems confronting young people, the staff at the Bangor YMCA hope an upbeat event like Healthy Kids Day will connect families and send the message that the Y is a home base for the community in its efforts to promote wellbeing.
“That’s what I feel like is the biggest thing,” Alyssa Gutib, the family programming coordinator at the Bangor Y, said. “You come here and you see your friends, your family, [and] you make new friends.”