According to Barrow and Lupin West, “Pool days are the best days.”
Barrow and Lupin took full advantage of Family Day at the Pool by cheering on their mom Olivia Barrow in addition to having some fun on the side.
“They are supporting mama doing a 70.3 Ironman in Victoria and so they’re my cheer fans, whenever I finish my laps they come out and we have a good time,” Olivia Barrow said.
Barrow and Lupin West cheer on their mom Olivia Barrow while she swims laps at Family Day at the Park on Saturday. (Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire)
The Southeast Alaska Family Evaluation Child Advocacy Center along with the Catholic Community Service hosted three free swim sessions at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center on Saturday as part of an ongoing series aimed at increasing healthy outcomes for children and parents by providing opportunities to engage in positive childhood experiences. Positive childhood experiences are the balance of adverse childhood experiences, which are correlated with an increased likelihood of developing negative physical and mental health and lifestyle challenges into adulthood, according to the SAFE Child Advocacy Center.
Rikki DuBois, preventive education specialist for SAFE Child Advocacy Center said, as with all of the center’s events, its focus revolves around supporting and promoting positive childhood experiences as an anecdote to adverse childhood experiences.
“That balance of difficult experiences and positive experiences, when you have the positive experiences to draw from, you can work through that,” DuBois said. “It’s how we build that resilience to come through those difficult situations and have better outcomes in the future as opposed to long term mental health challenges that are sometimes experienced after child abuse.”
Christal Higdon and daughter Ophelia work on swimming in the deep end during Family Day at the Pool on Saturday at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center. (Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire)
Outreach coordinator for Catholic Community Service Erin Youngstrom said that in addition to providing free snacks, everyone who participated in the Family Day at the Pool received a swag bag along with a book that was provided by Sealaska Heritage Institute.
“It’s really great because additionally, in most of the bags, the Juneau Public Library provided a 50 cent voucher for friends of the library and the children’s books at the library are only 25 to 50 cents, so everyone is going to be walking away with a book today essentially, which is really nice,” Youngstrom said.
Last summer SAFE Child Advocacy Center hosted its first Family Day at the Park, which Youngstrom said they intend to host again this coming summer.
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
