Colour run for children’s health

HUNDREDS of children and parents embraced healthy living at the annual Bullinah Aboriginal Health Service Colour Run at Saunders Oval.

The event aimed to promote healthy lifestyle choices and featured a variety of programs supporting youth across the Northern Rivers, including the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program.

Event organiser Sam Wilson said the initiative focused on educating young people about the risks of smoking and vaping.

“It’s mainly to do with vaping and smoking, children are one of our main target groups,” Wilson said.

“We want to raise awareness and get the information out there so the kids can make their own choices.

“We’ll usually have pamphlets and all sorts of information we can hand out.

“This is about connecting with the community and having a lot of fun.”

The event featured obstacle courses, water slides and other activities as the kids were covered in the traditional food dye colouring.

Police officers and several community members and volunteers helped run or took part in the event.

“There were probably about 300 kids here at one point and it was just a shame we had to pack up a bit early because of the weather,” Wilson said.

“We had so many volunteers and organisations here helping that I can’t even name them all.

“The kids all helped with packing up and we were able to clean everything up quickly, which was nice.”

Wilson was pleased the event attracted children from Casino, Lismore and Maclean.

The health service will continue to run its smoking program with school and other events throughout the year.