By Elyse McNeil and Elise Vout
The Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) ‘Be Active and Healthy’ program is off to a successful start this school holidays, offering a range of free and low cost events.
Fitkids Australia Instructor Robert Edwards was contracted by the GCCC and has been involved in a number of events these school holidays including a Gladiators challenge in Robina which over 60 people attended.
“[It] get[s] kids to have fun, that way they don’t realise they’re exercising and they’ll participate for longer,” Mr Edwards said.
More locally, a Mini Olympic Challenge was held at Frascott Park in Varsity Lakes, where attendance was also high.
Mother of two Sue Swanston found out about the event off the website after another mother told her about it.
Mrs Swanston and her children plan to attend a number of the upcoming events during the school holidays.
Mr Edwards said it was really good to see the council spending money on the ‘Be Active and Healthy’ program, although there could be more advertising more for the events.
“They [should] advertise in the parks… and include letter drops around the area in letter boxes and in schools,” he said.
After the recent release of statistics showing Australia as the fattest nation, programs such as this are more important than ever.
Details of upcoming events can be found in the Community Events calendar.