Basketball hall-of-famer Alonzo Mourning hosts Winter Groove event
Children were all smiles during their dental screenings Saturday, and it may have been thanks to a basketball hall-of-famer and former Miami Heat star.
Alonzo Mourning hosted a free family health and wellness day during Zo’s Winter Groove at Miramar Regional Park, where children and adults got free health screenings in mobile units resembling a doctor’s or dentist’s office.
Competing.
It was easy to spot the 6-foot-10 basketball star surrounded by attendees lining up for photos with him. The music, bounce houses, food trucks and other entertainment may have been part of the fun, but the focus was on being healthy.
“Health and wellness is the key,” Mourning said. “Trying to get people healthy, active, eating right, seeing their health care provider and everything — things of that nature — all of that stuff is extremely important.
“That’s what today’s all about,” he said.
The day began with about 400 participants during a 5K run/walk, Mourning said, and continued with health and wellness vendors at the “Memorial Hospital Miramar Health Village” and a “Kidz Stay-Fit Playground.”
Liz and Ernie Hernandez, of Pembroke Pines, took their grandchildren, 6-year-old Adrea and 4-year-old Julian, to encourage them to try sports, break away from TV and mobile devices and simply enjoy being outside. The event was spread over a large swath of the park, hugging a lake.
“They get happy outdoors,” Liz Hernandez said.
It also didn’t hurt that she was a Miami Heat fan and the event was being hosted by Mourning, she said.
Pediatric nurse practitioner Joanne Christopher-Hines was in one of the mobile units holding vision screenings, checking children’s body mass indexes and, in some cases, drawing blood with a finger stick to check for anemia.
“It’s a doctor’s office on wheels,” Christopher-Hines said.
On Saturday, she checked a 4-year-old girl who was obese and who she thought was at high risk of facing diabetes. It was a wake-up call for the girl’s mother, the nurse said. The family should collectively change its eating habits.
“Eating healthy will benefit the rest of the family,” too, Christopher-Hines said.
At the mobile Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures dental office, 3-year-old Mila serenely sat on her mom’s lap while her teeth were checked. It was her first time having a dental checkup and the girl’s calmness was a welcomed reaction, said her mother, Marisa Salazar.
“We were really surprised,” Salazar, of Miami Lakes, said. “It’s kind of like a nice introduction to the dentist.”
The neat, sugar-free treat that likely helped before the checkup: princess-themed face-painting for Mila.
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By Erika Pesantes
Sun Sentinel
