In recognition of Month of the Military Child, Naval Support Activity Bethesda held several events for military children and their families.

NSAB's Fleet and Family Support Center held their 5th annual Youth Health and Fitness Fair April 16.

"We have a health and fitness fair with 23 vendors ranging from the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic to NSAB crime prevention," said Carren Francis, a life skills educator with FFSC.

The Youth Health and Fitness Fair was also a way for parents to get information while their children had fun.

"It is an informational fair," said Francis. "The parents get to go around and get information from the vendors, and the kids will do an activity at each table. The kids will then get their passports stamped once they completed their activity and they will turn them in for a prize at the end of the fair."

At the end of the fair, FFSC raffled off prizes like fitness gifts bags and bikes, said Francis.

"We just want to honor some of the sacrifices that our families are making as the parents are serving in the military," said Ursula Rocha, a new parent support nurse with FFSC.

FFSC thought it was important to put an emphasis on the health of the service member's family.

"Being a military treatment facility, we thought it was very important to focus on the health of our families since that's what we primarily do here at NSAB," said Rocha. "We thought focusing on their health and building resiliency among our families was really important.

There are many benefits offered to service members, and sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with all of them.

"We just really encourage our families to come to these events to learn what services are available to them," said Rocha. "Sometimes there are so many things available that it's very hard to keep track of all the options they have available to them."

Attending events like this can help service members and their families foster new relationships.

"It also helps them build connections with other family members, which may be difficult at this specific location because they are not living on base," said Rocha. "We want them to be able to build a support network so they can have someone to lean on during the difficult things they may face while they are serving."

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