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Pancake flipping raises awareness
By Angela Treharne
Axis Family Resources
A pancake breakfast at Rotary Park next week will raise awareness of the health risks to an unborn child when the mother drinks alcohol.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Awareness Day is an international annual event that calls on communities to support women in their efforts to refrain from drinking while pregnant.
To symbolize the ninth months of pregnancy, at 9:09 a.m. on September 9, a group will gather at Spirit Square to ring bells. This will be followed by speeches from former Cranbrook Mayor and current Kootenay-Columbia NDP candidate for Member of Parliament Wayne Stetski and others who are involved with supporting people with FASD.
FASD is the most common cause of developmental disabilities in North America. Despite 40 years of evidence that alcohol exposure causes irreversible brain damage and a wide range of birth defects, one in 13 pregnant women report drinking alcohol during the last 30 days.
FASD Awareness Day was started by parents of adopted children with FASD in Toronto in 1999. It is now marked across the world with the ringing of bells on the ninth day of the ninth month each year.
