East Aurora Advertiser

Children’s Wellness Walk Set for Early May Around Community



There is a new organization beginning to plant its seeds in the community and it is geared at helping and educating children. 

They will be introducing themselves to the Greater East Aurora area with a Children’s Wellness Walk on May 1 and May 2 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. with classes, lectures and free services. Anyone with school-age children is welcome to attend.

The organization is called the Four Three Two Alliance. It was founded by East Aurora resident Moira Bartolotta, Sarah Barber-Smith of the Shaw Academic Institute of East Aurora and Dr. Shannon Wichlacz, Ph.D., who is an assistant professor at the University of Buffalo. The alliance’s mission is to support, co-create and maintain opportunities for children, adolescents and their families to reconnect with nature in ways that contribute to their overall health and well-being, close the child-nature gap through enrichment and educational activities and re-harmonize our community’s affiliation with the natural world.

Several businesses in the community have partnered with the alliance and will offer their services for a block of time that weekend – such as Andrew’s Barber Shop, to give away free haircuts for children, or Pure Essence Salon to offer braiding tutorials – while other businesses open their doors as an area for presenters who can offer options to parents to support the wellbeing of their children as they are dealing with the stress and pressures of school, social experiences, fears, health imbalances, and life during the changes in society over the last year. JoyWheel Yoga will offer a family yoga class with deep breathing exercises for relaxing. Beauty Organix, Mister’s Bar and Grill, HomeGrown Kitchen, Main Street Bakery and Reflection Mind, Body and Soul have also sponsored this event, among others.

Bartolotta said that the alliance’s goals are threefold. First, they hope to bring out in the open the fact that the mental and emotional fitness of children is a serious casualty of the mandated restrictions that society has endured. Second, they hope to inspire a community effort in addressing the situation, while working together to incorporate new and meaningful ways of helping them to bring their lives into balance. And third, they seek to examine what society has been accepting as normal, along with how children are raised to the extent in which they have been unable to cope with the sudden restrictions and changes.

“People are looking for alternatives to conventional solutions now more than ever and we hope to steer people towards natural solutions, as well as provide parents an opportunity to talk about what they have been going through,” Bartolotta said. 

The website has a survey for parents and caregivers to fill out about the experiences that their children have gone through this past year, and the alliance will be taking these answers to assess what else they can do for the community for it to heal. Survey answers will be kept anonymous.

In addition to the walk, the alliance will be sponsoring a nature-based day camp this summer beginning in July for students entering fourth through twelfth grade. The organization is also seeking out a location to open up a “homeschooling school” for families who are seeking an alternative to public education this fall. Families who are going to homeschool can register their students here for certain programs or the entire day.

“It has become a significant concern that the mental and emotional wellbeing of the children in our community has degraded due to the restrictions and distortions we have all been subjected to over the last year, especially within the schools,” Bartolotta said. “We want to offer an alternative and change the conversation.”

Registration opened up for these presentations on April 12. Families can register on the website www.432alliance.org. These activities and presentations are free of charge.

The Children’s Wellness Walk also has a Facebook page that will transition into a Four Three Two Alliance Facebook page after the walk in May.

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