By Sam Skopp
Buy Local Santa Monica, a campaign devoted to encouraging support and growth for local businesses, held its popular Health and Fitness festival this past Saturday at the Santa Monica Civic Center, featuring over 100 booths where community members shared advice and expertise and provided free health screenings and product samples to the hundreds of Santa Monica residents who visited the festival throughout the day.
“There’s a lot of activity going on. There’s a lot of music, a lot of dancing and great food trucks. We’ve got all sorts of activities,” said President and CEO of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce Laurel Rosen.
Some of the activities eventgoers could participate in included dance lessons given on a main stage at the center of the festival, yoga classes provided by Naam Yoga, a bike skills and obstacle course, a “shakey quakey” house designed to teach children about earthquake safety and a storytelling and dress up booth.
“[Our exhibitors] are doing everything here you could possibly think of to talk about buying local, being in our community, and just having fun,” said Rosen.
The variety of local businesses exhibiting was diverse, and included political organizations, advocacy groups, restaurants, local government and more. The Pico Improvement Organization, which is a group created in support of the community on and around Pico boulevard, was among the local organizations in attendance.
“One way that we’re encouraging people to be active in the community on Pico is by putting together a mural tour, which people can walk, bike or skateboard and be active along what’s about a two-and-a-half mile stretch on Pico Boulevard,” said Board Member Heather Rabun.
In order to encourage eventgoers to participate in this Pico Boulevard mural tour, the Pico Improvement Organization handed out maps outlining the route and providing locations for each of the murals along the boulevard.
Another popular attraction was a station set up by the Santa Monica Fire Department for giving sidewalk CPR lessons to any interested passersby.
“Sidewalk CPR teaches the basics of pre-emergency care for before the fire department gets there. That’s the most important thing to do, and has an 80 percent rate of survival in cardiac emergencies,” said Marcos Simental, who was one of the representatives for the Santa Monica Fire Department.
For more information about Buy Local Santa Monica as well as a list of upcoming events, visit buylocalsantamonica.com.
