Families across New Brunswick celebrated the province’s first Family Day on Monday, with many people taking part in free activities in Fredericton.
YMCA of Fredericton CEO Jason Dickson said their facility offered a “Free Family Fun Day,” with activities ranging from swimming, to an open gym, a tots gymnastics play area and family yoga, in addition to their every day activities.
Dickson said family is a “big component” of what they do at the YMCA and said hosting Family Day activities was the perfect opportunity to celebrate families.
“Our members come often and they get to use the gym and they get to use the pool and do a lot of other things, and we thought ‘What a great opportunity to open to the community and let everybody take a look at what we do,'” Dickson said.
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Dickson said there were two free swim sessions and said it was a busy day. There were also games rooms and squash courts available as well.
He said they first posted the Family Day activities information on Facebook, and said within 24 hours of posting it there were more than 12,000 views.
Dickson said it was a beautiful day outside, but said even with lots of free, outdoor events being offered across the region, he said the YMCA gave people the option to spend half the day outside, and the rest of it inside with family at the facility.
Helen Jamer and her family spent the afternoon at the YMCA, playing in the tots gymnastics play room.
“We actually just moved back home to Fredericton from Ontario where they have had Family Day for a little while now, and think this is our first full day as a family and it’s Family Day in New Brunswick,” Jamer said. “It’s kind of serendipitous.”
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She said they came to help burn off their son’s energy and spend time with other members of their family who also had the day off.
Her husband Matt Steeves said they moved back to Fredericton to be closer to relatives.
“To be here together on Family Day with my family and sister’s family, it’s perfect,” Steeves said. “We’ve been lucky enough to have Family Day in Ontario. We’ve always tried to do stuff as a family together and go out and get some exercise and we’ll be doing that here at the Y. Then later on tonight we’ll have a nice family dinner and maybe a glass of wine. Who knows?”
His sister Ginny Steeves brought her family along as well.
“We have little ones so it’s great to be able to have a spot for the really little ones and the bigger little ones to all play,” Ginny Steeves said. “We’ve got the ball pit, and there’s lots of places to crawl and swing and slide and roll and some great mats for the kids to jump and dance go nuts on.”