Saint Luke's Foundation helps Saint Luke's Crittenton Children Center raise awareness with Rock It!
On November 2nd, over 3,000 kids, families, volunteers, and community supporters filled Union Station’s Grand Hall for the 2nd Annual Rock It! Presented by Crittenton Children’s Center and Honeywell, Rock It is the largest free children’s mental health and wellness event in Kansas City. The goal of Rock It is to create a healthier Kansas City and increase awareness of the resources available to families both at Crittenton and through other community partners.
During the three hour event, children, adolescents, parents, and other caregivers had the opportunity to speak to 40 subject matter experts from Crittenton Children’s Center about a variety of health, wellness and development topics including substance abuse, healthy eating, active lifestyles, screen time and much more. Other Crittenton clinicians and therapists led kids and families in hands-on activities designed to increase quality time spent together.
A highlight of Rock It was the appearance of Elmo, Rosita, and Abby, three of the most popular residents of Sesame Street. Through an innovative partnership with Sesame Street Communities, Rock It presented two stage shows about friendship, kindness, and other values through interactive singing and dancing. Rock It attendees even got to meet Abby Cadabee in person!
Another fun element of the event was the appearance of Michael Stevens, better known by his YouTube personality, VSauce. VSauce has over 13 million followers/subscribers to his YouTube channel that features a variety of videos about STEM experiments kids can do with everyday items they can find at home.
In addition to Sesame Street and VSauce, Rock It also partnered with other community agencies to provide access to important resources needed by all families. Partners included Literacy KC, Grandmothers Against Gun Violence, Charlie’s House, and the Kansas City, MO Fire and Police Departments.