The Nestle Schools’ Wellness Fiesta held on last Thursday and Friday (May 14 and 15) was a smash hit all around. The theme for this year’s wellness fiesta was Obesity, and was selected in the hopes of raising awareness on how to prevent obesity and obesity-related illnesses, particular among the country’s youth. School and companies alike had booths set up all around the gardens at the Jamaica Conference Centre. Participating schools such as Vaz Preparatory, Westwood High, Robert Lightbourne High and Cedric Titus High are just a few of the lot that came to the event from all over the island. The schools decorated their booths with various health-related posters, brochures and even foods in order to win the ongoing booth competition. A few schools even performed on stage giving the audience a variety of entertaining dance, dub and drama pieces.

One of the companies present was Nestle, of course. They had a breakfast booth set up, providing patrons with Milo, porridge, various breakfast cereal, water and juice. They also had several other booths set up. The smoothie making area, where students could go to learn how to make a nutritious and healthy smoothie was a bit hit; as was the “Get Moving” booth that had a constant stream of energetic music on, drawing everyone in to a fun ‘dancer-cise’ session; and the Live Well and Eat Healthy booths, which were set up to inform the students about their bodies and what they could eat to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Dark and Lovely was there as well with a variety of hair products out for sampling. Clean and Clear had professionals in their booth, who could check and tell you the type of skin you had so that you could buy the right skin care products, which they also had on sale. Kool Runnings Adventure Park also had a booth set up where they gave out brochures and spoke about the features they had at their amusement park. They even had a dummy to demonstrate CPR and later on in the day Mikey the Manatee, the Kool Runnings mascot, made an appearance. He danced in the Milo Energy Zone and the Get Moving Booth as well as took photos with patrons.

Had you been among the excitement that took place over the two-day fiesta, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn’t enjoying themselves. By our account, the wellness fiesta was a huge success.