Family Fitness Challenge Day Targets Watsonville's Obesity Problem

Join your friends and neighbors Sunday for the first-ever Family Fitness Challenge Day. 

The free event, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Ramsay Park, will be hosted by the United Way of Santa Cruz County, in partnership with Jovenes SANOS, the County of Santa Cruz and the City of Watsonville. 

The First Annual Family Fitness Challenge Day will be held at Ramsey Park which is centrally located in Watsonville, California. Activity stations, such as soccer, tennis, Zumba, martial arts, biking and basketball, will be set up throughout the park grounds for families to actively participate in each sport. Families will be given a punch card that upon completion will be entered into the event’s raffle. Families will enjoy a hosted lunch and snack stations also set-up throughout Ramsey Park. 

The community members of Watsonville face alarming childhood obesity rates of 49.3 percent in comparison to 31 percent in the city of Santa Cruz. In order to address these disparities Jóvenes SANOS, a Watsonville youth based advocacy and leadership group, a project of the United Way is committed to changing this reality for youth and families. 

This event will engage families in healthy physical activities and provide practical information on health and fitness resources available in the community. The design behind the event is to opportunities directly linked to health, fitness and healthy eating that can lead to lifelong lifestyle changes for the entire family. 

In order to create a culture of health within communities that face many barriers, access and opportunities must be present for residents to utilize. Our vision is to increase these opportunities of health in the Watsonville community by engaging the community at all levels in the First Annual Family Fitness Challenge Day.