The Benton Harbor Youth Sports Association is planning an Opening Day Health and Wellness Festival for May 2 at Union Park to celebrate the start of a new baseball season and connect the community with the resources it needs to live healthier lives.
Association Director John Sams tells us they currently have about 200 young people enrolled in their baseball programs and want to celebrate.
“We like to really support our kids holistically — mind, body, and soul — and we try to do something very special every year around opening day, because for us, it’s more than a sport,” Sams said.
The Opening Day Health and Wellness Festival will feature fun activities like a petting zoo, pony rides, face painting, a bounce house, and a live DJ. But that’s not all.
“We’re going to bring in resources from the community so our parents can get support, such as Present Pillars. We have a healthy drink combination. Corewell Health should be on the scene. Just making sure that we have resources for our families. That’s where we can support our kids, and it’s more than just sports.”
Sams says the Benton Harbor Youth Sports Association is seeking to launch a new season focused on teamwork and sportsmanship for ages four through 14, and the festival will be a great way to do so while bringing out families for some fun. He told us more about the Benton Harbor Youth Sports Association.
“We’ve been around three years, and we started off by just wanting to do sports. And we realized quickly that for us to do what we want to do with our young people in these sports, we have to do more. So we’ve done community giveaways. We’ve done cleanups. We’re very active on social media. We’re very active in our parents’ lives because what we found out very early is for us to develop young people, we have to make sure that we always give them, our parents, and our families opportunities and avenues, specifically around sports.”
The festival will take place on Saturday, May 2 from 12 to 5 p.m. at Union Park in Benton Harbor with the Opening Day celebration from 12 to 1. Everyone’s invited.
You can learn more about the Benton Harbor Youth Sports Association right here.
