Every year, National Playday calls on everyone to celebrate and show why play is fundamental for children’s enjoyment of childhood.
This year’s theme was ‘All to Play For’ as play opportunities are vital for all children’s health, wellbeing and development.
To celebrate Playday, NHS Lanarkshire’s Health Improvement Team worked with various NHS colleagues and local community groups to attend North Lanarkshire Council’s event at Summerlee. Children and families were invited to come along and take part in lots of fun activities from friendly dinosaurs having their teeth brushed, bear hunts with Jenny and the Bear, Bookbug, imagination station and more. Airdrie Community School Uniform Bank were also there on the day.
The event was held on Wednesday 3 August at Summerlee Heritage Centre, where the final count of children, parents, carers, teddy bears and dinosaurs through the enormous iron gates at Summerlee came to an amazing 2582.
Margaret Clark, senior health promotion officer – Early Years Training and Improvement, NHS Lanarkshire, said: “The theme of Playday ‘All to play for’ highlights that play is for everyone.
“Play happens everywhere, every day and is the right of every child and young person and the event encourages families, communities and organisations large and small to consider how they can build better opportunities for all children to play.
“This was our 10th anniversary of attending the event and it was a pleasure to see families out and about again after such a long time unable to be together.
“A great, free day of play was had by everyone – we are already looking forward to 2023’s event.”
Fiona McLean, health improvement practitioner – Quit Your Way, NHS Lanarkshire, added: “Myself and my colleague Laura from the Quit Your Way team attended the event.
“We put up smoke-free signage to ensure it was a smoke-free event, and brought along plenty of fun activities and games too.
“Our Jenny and the Bear resources highlight the risk of children’s exposure to second-hand smoke through an engaging story of a little girl and her teddy, as well as what parents/carers can do to ensure their children aren’t exposed to its harmful effects. We took Jenny and the Bear books and colouring in sheets and prepared a scavenger hunt for the children. We also ran a competition to guess the bear’s birthday, with the lucky winner winning the teddy bear to take home.
“It was a great day out and we hope everyone who came along enjoyed it too!”
