Healthy Kids Day Kicks off Summer

By: Loria Yeadon   

President & CEO  

YMCA of Greater Seattle 

Healthy Kids Day, a fun-filled free day of activities for kids and families, returns on April 30 to 12 YMCA of Greater Seattle locations across the region. For 30 years, this momentous day has introduced kids to new ways to get healthy at sports challenge stations, unlock their imagination through hands-on camp arts & crafts, and spread cheer through games and more interactive fun designed to set kids up for a summer of success by motivating and teaching families how to develop and maintain healthy routines at home. 

At the Y, we believe in the potential of all children, and each day we work to help kids find that potential within themselves. We support this work through our foundational commitments to outreach, supporting Whole Person Health, and the pillars of Vision 2025 which seek to increase our capacity and efforts to serve youth. With volunteers, donors, and community partners, the Y brings enriching programs to youth across the region. Thank you to our volunteers, supporters, and advocates for walking with the Y and helping bring back Healthy Kids Day in person in 2022. 

Young people are at a crucial intersection, emerging from years of the pandemic, witnessing a national reckoning with race, and managing through climate change while processing how all of this has affected their well-being, identity, and future. Healthy Kids Day is a national initiative to improve health and well-being for kids and families by getting more kids moving and learning, interacting with peers, feeling the joy of being a kid, and creating healthy habits that they’ll continue while they’re away from the classroom.  

When kids are out of school, they can face hurdles that prevent them from reaching their full potential. Research shows that without access to out-of-school learning activities, kids fall behind academically. Kids also gain weight twice as fast during summer than during the school year. With all that’s going on in the world right now, Healthy Kids Day is a reminder to families that we can help ensure all children have access to what they need to reach their full potential in spirit, mind, and body, even during out-of-school time. 

Healthy Kids Day is a fun, free community-wide event open to all kids and their families to kick off summer and remind us all how important it is for kids to stay active physically and mentally throughout the summer. 

Please join us on Saturday, April 30th in celebration of kids, and gathering as a community committed to helping them thrive. 

In community and gratitude,  

Loria Yeadon  

President & CEO   

YMCA of Greater Seattle  

Loria Yeadon is President and CEO at YMCA of Greater Seattle. She is an accomplished non-profit and corporate leader, engineer, and patent attorney, with more than 35 years of demonstrated commitment to serving community. Yeadon is the first woman, as well as the first person of color, to serve as CEO in the 146-year history of the YMCA of Greater Seattle.