OSF Winding Down Summer Cares-4-Kids Program; Care-A-Van Services Expanding Soon

OSF HealthCare’s Care-A-Van, officially blessed and put into service earlier this year, has been making the rounds in Vermilion County this summer as part of the OSF Mission Partners’ summer Cares-4-Kids program.  Their stop on Thursday was at the Danville Family YMCA.

As OSF employee and Mission Partner Courtney Rieches explains; Thursday’s stop was another chance to show youngsters the new Care-A-Van, and then talk about MORE healthy behaviors and LESS unhealthy behaviors.

AUDIO: Here soon we’ll get them into the van; let them take that tour, run through the obstacle course; and teach them a little bit about electronics.  And how NOT to use the electronics.

Youngsters participating in the OSF Mission Partners’ Cares-4-Kids program during their Danville YMCA stop enjoyed a schedule that included lunch, an obstacle course, and a tour of the OSF Care-A-Van.

And LESS time in front of phones and screens and MORE time out and about having fun is a major theme of the Cares-4-Kids program.  OSF Community Resource Center Manager Jake Ozier says they’ve been passing out bag sets of fun backyard type games; like bocce ball, ring toss and slam ball; at every stop.  And the feedback has been very strong.

AUDIO: One of the teachers said the kiddos came back the next day and said “we were playing with all those gifts all weekend and we had a great time.”  So I think they are getting the message that you don’t always have to do traditional exercises to stay healthy.  Sometimes it’s just getting out and playing.  We do the exercise, we do the electronics under one-two hours a day, and that it’s okay to just get out and play with the gifts they have.

(Left) OSF Care-A-Van pulls up at the Danville Family YMCA. (Right) OSF Mission Partners Courtney Rieches and Jake Ozier chat while participating children eat lunch.

Ozier says the Care-A-Van should be helping OSF put important medical services on the road very soon.

AUDIO: Community events….we’re doing screenings, we’re doing education currently.  And we’re working with our medical group and hopefully, within months to next year, we’ll start doing those clinical activities a little more often.

For now, they’re hoping to expand the Cares-4-Kids program message from this summer to school districts throughout the county this coming school year, perhaps with evening family nights.