By

Kera Williams,   James And Margie Marion Elementary School

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Community Involvement

We believe that families are striving to make healthy changes. The Health Hustle is a large-scale health and wellness expo that was created to introduce our students and families to resources available in and around their community, and provide comprehensive health and wellness opportunities for three Allen ISD schools. This year’s 2nd Annual 2015 Health Hustle was held at South Fork Ranch and played host to over 130 vendors representing the many aspects of health (i.e. – fitness, emotional, financial, wellness, nutrition, etc.). What makes this event different from a normal school health fair, other than the size, is the fact that we encourage each vendor to not only provide information to our attendees but also to engage them in interactive activities at their booth to promote what they have to offer in some way. These activities range from food sampling, interactive games and drawings, obstacle courses, trampolines, making healthy snack recipes, inflatables, product sampling, game trucks, on-stage demos, mascot involvement, photo booths, and much more! With rave reviews and a recorded attendance of over 2,500 people, our event was a huge success. Through an increased awareness of health-related community resources and the ability to communicate the benefits of healthy choices, our students and families prove that the Health Hustle continues to make an impact in creating a healthier school each year.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

An event like the Health Hustle, while VERY rewarding and worth all the time and effort, is not something that should be taken on lightly. Months of planning and hard work go into planning, preparing, and hosting an event of this magnitude.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Some of our biggest barriers are always: *Finding an event location that can accommodate our needs and still be affordable *Securing sponsors *Contacting and booking vendors *Overseeing the details of the event day itself

How did you accomplish your goals?

We simply say form a good team of support, be very organized, find a system to track everything, and just GO FOR IT!