MARYSVILLE — Leave your couch behind for an afternoon and join us for the free Marysville Healthy Communities Challenge Day, a fun-filled community fitness and health celebration in collaboration with Snohomish County Get Movin’, a winning combination of events to motivate you toward your health, nutrition and fitness goals.

The first-ever Challenge Day will be 1-7 p.m. on Saturday, June 6 at Allen Creek Elementary School, 6505 60th Drive NE (SR 528). Get Movin’, the annual free summer program aimed at motivating families to adopt more active lifestyles, will run 1-3 p.m. across the street from Challenge Day at the Marysville/North County YMCA, 6420 60th Drive NE.

Challenge Day will offer a full bill of activities and events to help you get a head start on getting fit this summer including advice from several health and fitness agencies, kids art center, how-to seminars on gardening, vegetable seeds and starter plant giveaways, healthy food vendors, a fun walk, a healthy community barbecue fundraiser, hands-on activities and much more.

On the main stage in the Allen Creek Elementary Courtyard, Northwest gardening guru Ciscoe Morris from KING 5-TV’s “Gardening with Ciscoe” will share tips for how to grow healthy vegetables from 2:30-3:30 p.m. and lead young people in prepping their own planter boxes provided at the event. Emmy-award winning songwriter and children’s entertainer Tim Noah will appear live in concert at 5:30 p.m.

Other activities throughout the day will include a Marysville Mile Walk on the Jennings Park Loop, free bike safety checks for those who ride to the event, walking and running seminars, sports injury prevention and screenings from Summit Rehabilitation, Nintendo Wii demonstrations with a raffle giveaway, Marysville Youth Sports Clubs information, free family health screens from Marysville Family Medicine, and signup information and details about the new community garden in Marysville, Wilcox Farm Community Garden.

As part of the festivities, a community healthy barbecue and fundraiser, with food donated and prepared courtesy of Let’s Dish in Marysville, is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Allen Creek Elementary. All proceeds will benefit the Marysville Community Food Bank.

Championed by Mayor Dennis Kendall, the Challenge Day event is also an opportunity to celebrate the successes thus far by the many individuals and organizations involved in the Marysville Healthy Communities Project.

“The work being done through the Marysville Healthy Communities Project is making Marysville a more fit and health-conscious community,” said Mayor Kendall. “Through our community-based collaborative response, we are seeing real changes in lifestyle in Marysville that will reduce the obesity epidemic in our community, and the chronic diseases linked to it.

“Our goal is to make Marysville a more fit and health-conscious community, so we hope you will attend the Healthy Communities Challenge Day event on June 6 to show that you are with us, and ready to kick off a healthy summer.”

For more information call 360-363-8400, or visit the Marysville Healthy Communities Project web site at www.marysvillehealthycommunitiesproject.com.