RECENT COMMENTS

Hoops for Health and Healthy Living Festival this Saturday

The 3rd Annual Hoops for Health and Healthy Living Festival is this Saturday at The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club at 3701 R Street from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

The event is a celebration and open house to share healthy living practices and encourage all Richmond residents to live a healthy lifestyle through diet, recreation and education. The event also features a free 3-on-3 basketball tournament for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. To date, 20 teams are signed up.

A 2013 Richmond Times-Dispatch report found stark differences in the life-expectancy and health outcomes of East End residents compared with their peers in the West End or Southside, respectively. Since then, The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club has hosted and annual event, Hoops for Health, and adapted programming to encourage healthy living practices among its members and their families.

This year the Healthy Living Festival will feature 25+ nonprofit/public service partners on hand to make up the healthy living festival. The block of R Street where the Club is located will be closed and partners will provide ‘accidental education’ activities to community members and basketball tournament participants throughout the day.

Also this year, The Salvation Army has taken the mobile kitchen to the Creighton Court area of the East End to offer healthy snacks, tips and ministry to families in that community and offer an invitation to continue their education on healthy living at Saturday’s event.

PHOTO: Club members learning to make smoothies from representatives of Tricycle Gardens at Hoops for Health 2014