By Rafael Lima
Families gathered in downtown Richmond’s for a good time — and, most importantly, a healthy one.
For a decade, the Richmond Main Street Initiative has been holding the Healthy Village Festival as a fun way to promote healthy living and to connect local residents with health-related resources.
The festival was held at the Community Green Space at Harbour Way and Macdonald Avenue from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and featured ZUMBA and Yoga demos (including yoga for everybody with Nadia Crabtree), vendors (including the local Gratitude afrocentric gift shop), music, a pop-up farm with farm animals, a produce giveaway, a history hike, health tips and screenings, resource booths and healthy lunch options from new downtown restaurant Roux. Richmond firefighters took part, and one of the main event sponsors, Kaiser Permanente, held an Ask the Doctor booth.
The event’s Grand Marshall was Richmond Councilmember Demnlus Johnson III, who lauded the festival’s intent of “getting that information out to the residents about food, health, dental, all of the good things that’s needed to live a happy, long, healthy life right here in the city of Richmond.”
Amanda Elliott, executive director of RMSI, which has been behind an ongoing revitalization of the downtown corridor that has in part resulted in multiple lively summer festival such as this one, said the event is also about community unity.
“We here are all about bringing the community together,” Elliott said. “To learn and teach one another about how to stay healthy and to stay fit.”
Editor’s note: one segment of the above video comes courtesy of a video posted to the Richmond Main Street Initiative’s Facebook page. Follow the RMSI page for consistent updates about downtown.
