Day focuses on fun and health checks
Poutiri Trust event attracts families The kids could play in the park, have a barbecue with us, access health checks if they wanted them. People could ask questions.
There weren’t too many opportunities to enjoy some sunshine during the school holidays. But Poutiri Trust managed to find one to hold a day of fun and health checks — only just.
The day had originally been planned for Thursday last week but with another day of poor weather forecast, it was changed to Friday.
“We were trying to chase the sunshine,” says trust CEO Kirsty Maxwell-crawford.
“It was the end of the school holidays and families have had the kids largely indoors because it’s been raining for a lot of the holidays.”
There was a barbecue, bouncy castle, face painting, activities and spot prizes.
“We had amazing support from local businesses who said they would love to donate,” says Kirsty.
The trust’s three integrated services — mama maia [free breast feeding support service],
Kirsty Maxwell-crawford
mobile health service and wha¯nau ora team — were all present.
“It was really about jointly coming together and giving back to families who could come down.
“The kids could play in the park, have a barbecue with us, access health checks if they wanted them. People could ask questions. Covid’s still around and we’ve got the second wave here now so they could ask if they wanted to know more about what’s happening with boosters.
“It was about creating a no pressure environment so they could pick and choose what parts of our health services they may want to access.”
The event attracted children and parents, grandparents and uncles and aunties.
“We wanted to make sure they knew about the free health checks and the free health services we can provide for them if they are interested so it’s about continuing to try and do all we can and are as accessible as possible and that all parts of our community can access us.”