Medicine Hat, AB – With technology nowadays, getting out and staying active can be tough.
Not only are kids spending a little too much time behind the screen, but parents are as well.
When you combine too much screen time with the snow finally settling in, outdoor activities across the Hat have been severely reduced.
Young Family Wellness Facilitator with Alberta Health Services, Amanda Poll said these issues could potentially impact a persons health and wellness.
“There’s different obstacles for sure, especially once winter comes,” she explained. “Getting outside and moving always becomes more difficult. That’s why we wanted to highlight some of the facilities that there are in the city.”
Some of the key facilities here in the city would include the Family Leisure Centre (FLC).
“Medicine Hat is so lucky to have amazing facilities like the FLC, as well as our trail system. We really want to promote everything that’s available for our community to help make sure that we have the happiest and healthiest families, little people and adults.”
Today, the City of Medicine Hat and Alberta Health Services partnered with multiple different organizations to showcase what you can do to live a happy and healthy lifestyle here in the Hat.
“We have facilities like the FLC and YMCA. There should be absolutely no barriers to having an active lifestyle. The city does fair entry programs and the YMCA does sponsored programs as well. There’s absolutely no reason that people can’t get out and run, swim or do whatever makes you active.”
Community Resource Worker for the City of Medicine Hat, Ashley Howes said because children are so heavily influenced by what surrounds them, health and wellness plans should be introduced at an early age.
“I think that we talk a lot about prevention and things starting at a very, very young age,” she stated. “If we can start making healthy families and healthy living a part of the dialogue going forward, I think we’ll set up future generations for a lot of success.”
And with that success comes positive feedback from the community.
“People are just really surprised at all the things we have to do here. The FLC is such a wonderful and amazing space, so we’re able to utilize a lot of it to highlight the vendors we do have and exhibitors that we have in Medicine Hat.”
So just because technology is becoming more popular and winter is upon us, that is no excuse to living an unhealthy life as an individual or family.
“It’s all about making sure people know how much there is to do. We are rich and very diverse with everything we have within our city.”
