Student Health and Safety Day Saturday
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, families are invited to the Historic Grove Theater in Oak Ridge to enjoy a free lunch and enjoyable day learning how to stay safe and remain drug free. There will be inflatables, activities, and games and several organizations from the community will be on-hand to answer questions and give presentations about safety and health.
“Oak Ridge is blessed with an amazing number of helpers,” according to organizer David Allred of High Places Community Church. “Back when I worked in school safety for Anderson County Schools, I was able to meet many of our community’s helpers and it has always been in my heart to create a space for parents to receive the same kind of reassurance I did when I learned how hard they work and how much they care about our kids.”
Oak Ridge Periodic Tables, formerly the People’s Supper of Oak Ridge, will also host a one-hour lunch conversation about student health and safety in the large auditorium at the Grove. Rev. Allred, who also leads that initiative to bring people together over meals and meaningful conversations, noted, “some topics, like the Uvalde (Texas) shooting, or the rising rates of teen suicide, are more adult conversations, so we are hoping that some parents and concerned community members might join us at noon that day to just talk — as friends and neighbors — about mental health, the violence epidemic in America, and how we can all assist in keeping kids safe.”
“If children can leave this event with a few more handles on staying safe and leading healthy lives, it’s a win for our entire community. If parents can leave feeling a little better about Oak Ridge just having met some of the many caring people and organizations we have in our city, it will be a double win,” Allred wrote in a news release. “There’s the old cliché about it taking a village. I believe we have that village, and this event is simply designed for us to know more about each other.”
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Student Health and Safety Day Aug. 6
