Healthy Communities hosts 8th annual Halloween Walk

Mt. Pleasant - Healthy Henry County Communities is set to host its eighth annual Halloween Walk this Sunday, Oct. 18. The walk will be from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at East Lake Park in Mt. Pleasant.

Participants can begin from the softball diamond or the tennis court, following the walking path around the lake organized by the county Public Health department.

According to Henry County Public Health community outreach coordinator Kelly Carr, the walk will host a series of booths aimed at educating families on healthy behaviors and food options.

The walk is intended not only to inform families about health but also to help families have fun and explore East Lake.

'The walk is intended to get families out there being active together, seeing what the park has to offer, having fun, and then getting some health education at the same time,” Carr said.

Carr added the event usually draws about 300 people from the community each year, but with a global pandemic, she's unsure what the turnout will be.

To ensure the safety of families, the event will require social distancing between groups and will recommend cloth face coverings for anyone over 2 years old. The event has adapted to ensure that booths are no contact. This has required a little bit of creativity to ensure that there are no shared items at the event.

'We're being very creative with our partners that are helping out and coming up with ideas for the kids at each station. They are not having to touch shared items but still interacting with station volunteers,” Carr said.

According to Carr, the event is intended to be safe, so that families have somewhere to celebrate Halloween while observing safety and health guidelines.

'We're really doing everything we can to make this safe but still have something fun for people to go out and do, not just for their physical health but for their mental health,” Carr said.