Wellness Coalition makes plans for Newton Fest

The Newton Wellness Coalition discussed ways to be involved in Newton Fest activities at its Wednesday meeting.

The group focused on two areas of the festival set for June 9-12 — the morning fitness activities at Sunset Park and the afternoon Kid Zone play area, both on Saturday.

“At Sunset Park, Skiff Medical Center is going to have yoga in the park in association with the YMCA and Project AWAKE is going to do the 5K starting from Sunset Park and going to the arboretum and back,” coalition member Nathan Unsworth said.

The group discussed contacting vendors to get a piece of exercise equipment that would be a part of the adult outdoor exercise gym to showcase what an adult gym looks like to the public.

“It would neat if they could give us some real equipment,” coalition member Robyn Friedman said. “We would only have it there for that day and we could explain this is where we want to put this senior exercise outdoor gym area.”

Another area the coalition thought it could be involved in was the Kid Zone play area. Since play is a part of fitness, the group brainstormed how it could add to the activities. Ideas such as handing out water and sunscreen are possibilities.

Also discussed were ways to move forward with the kindergarten snack program following the news it did not receive any funding from the United Way of Jasper County. To fund the program, the coalition had requested $9,000 from the United Way.

“The small group that responded to the coalition felt there are bigger, higher needs out there than what we established as a need for the reason for the funding,” Friedman said.

She said they liked the idea but felt it only provides for Newton and not the entire county. Also, they would like to see additional funding sources for the program instead of all funding coming from the United Way.

Moving forward, the coalition is planning to contact local parent teacher associations about picking up the funding for the program.

“Our need when presenting the program is to take the burden off of the parents and establish that more parents were having struggles with it,” Friedman said.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com