Hay River not only picked up the title of the most active community in N.W.T. but also nabbed $15,000 in prize funding support for local physical activity and sport initiatives. The town’s residents and organizations got active throughout June as part the nationwide ParticipACTION Community Challenge encouraging everyone to get physically active. This year saw 516 folks take part with over 53,000 participations tracked. Over 64 organizations participated in over 726 activities, programs and events. In 2024, Hay River won the top prize in the national Participaction challenge, picking up $100,000 in prize funding and this year they were painfully close to picking up the crown.
Hay River’s ParticipACTION community challenge was also captured in a video created by organizers: ParticipACTION Hay River Community Challenge video
Even just looking at Hay River’s social media pages, it is evident that many people in the community enjoy participating in a variety of sports and physical activities throughout the year, from hockey to hiking and swimming.
“The community Hay River prides itself when it comes to its recreation activities and assets, community groups and just that general health associated recreation. From hosting tournaments and events that bring people into town or just through our amazing assets, that we have, especially our community centre and walking track and pool and then on our natural assets, of course,” said Glenn Smith, the town’s senior administrative officer.
“Our golf course has been quite popular as well this year and we’re doing a tremendous job with our recreation programming at the at the community centre,” he added.
Mayor Kandis Jameson shared pride in the community’s latest achievement.
“On behalf of the Council of the Town of Hay River, I am proud to celebrate the remarkable success of this year’s ParticipACTION Community Challenge. Hundreds of our residents committed thousands of hours to healthy, active living, and this initiative truly brought our community together around a shared goal of fitness and well-being,” said the mayor.
“We are deeply grateful to our Recreation and Community Services team for their outstanding leadership throughout the Challenge, and to every organization and participant whose enthusiasm and dedication continue to prove that Hay River is truly the hub of recreation in the North,” added Mayor Jameson.
Organizers explained that the community has worked hard and seeing their work come to fruition has helped drive them to keep meeting the challenge.
“We were the 2024 national participACTION Community challenge winners, so that was a really big deal last year to win and for that we got a hundred thousand dollars. We were named the Northwest Territories’ most active community. And now again this year, we’ve taken that title. So we’re quite proud of it. We were shooting again to be defending champions, we came very close to that, we finished second in Canada with respect to the participACTION hours or activities tracked,” said Smith.
“We didn’t quite meet that first place. Richmond from BC did, but we got to be really proud of where we finished here to be NWT’s. Most active community, and really proud of proud of everyone that participated,” exclaimed Smith.
The community has yet to decide how to use the funding, but currently they plan to have a discussion to the Recreation Board.
“We are thinking that we will use the funds to support some of the planned infrastructure or get assets upgraded in the community, but we’ll go to our Recreation Board for some consultation on that and then make a decision through Council,” said Smith.
The community took part in hundreds of different activities from swimming to basketball to walking on the track, slow pitch and yard work.
“There’s just so many activities that were included,” he pointed out.
Smith participated even while he was on away on vacation. In June, when he took a trip to Spain with family he registered ParticipACTION hours from there.
Smith said he likes to play golf and softball, but while he was in Spain he took up a sport that is popular there called padel (a sport played with a racket).
Diana Dampier, director of Projects and Stakeholder Relations with ParticipACTION, emphasized that the organization is dedicated to helping people expand their horizons to keep finding ways to exercise their physical mobility.
“ParticipACTION s a national charitable organisation that’s been around since 1971 and our mandate is to help people, move more, where they live, learn, work and play. It’s a national initiative to inspire communities across Canada to get active. It has a big focus on breaking down barriers to physical activity and its main purpose is to inspire communities to get more active,” Dampier told True North FM.
Dampier explained the organization awards the most active community in each province and territory.
“There’s many aspects to that but primarily organisations register on the website, they offer physical activity opportunities and track what they do throughout the month of June and then communities are invited to submit a finalist submission that’s judged by a national panel.”
Dampier said communities are judged using a combination of a quantitative score and the qualitative submission.
“This year was highly competitive. It was a really, really strong communities competing, and Hay, River was no exception to that. They did an amazing job. They really got the whole community involved. They had everything from I think every school was participating all five schools, they had sports clubs participating, they have businesses participating through a challenge, There was community groups that were providing opportunities for people, from various equity denied groups to get more active,” said Dampier.
The communities are really creative with what they do to promote physical activity. Another major consideration is to ensure activities are accessible and inclusive with low barriers.
“In Hay River, for instance, there was a corporate challenge. There was inclusive programming put on by the by the 2SLGBTQIA+ community for youth. There was Indigenous programming, there was something for seniors, something for students and everything in between. So, they really went out of their way to make sure everybody was included and there is a way for the whole community, to get more active and benefit from those physical as well as the mental and social benefits of physical activity,” sad Dampier.
The challenge helped to mobilize creative energies and team work in fun ways.
“And I think maybe the most creative one I saw at, Hay, River was a cardboard boat race in the pool, where the kids were building cardboard, boats with duct tape, and had a race in the pool with them,” exclaimed Dampier.
“This year across Canada, there was over 1500 organisations participating and there is 840,000, people participating across the country,” said Dampier.
“So you can imagine how much of a boost that gives to physical activity throughout the month of June and our hope is that by participating in the challenge. People can become aware of what’s available in their community. They can try something new or try something they haven’t done in a while and hopefully carry on that momentum and that inspiration throughout the rest of the year.
Dampier wanted to give a shout out to ParticipACTION’s funding partners Novo Nordisk and the government of Canada along with several provincial territorial partners that contributed.
“Hay River were the national winners last year and they did an amazing job again this year. It was a very tight race.”
“And so I just wanted to congratulate the community and all the efforts that they put into it. It was clear that they really rallied as a community. It looks like they had a great time doing it as well. The prize funding that is distributed is reinvested back into the community to continue to promote and support physical activity or sport so it continues that momentum,” said Dampier.
The organization will launch a public education campaign in the fall. Then in November, they will be launching an adult report card on physical activity, where the latest research gathered is presented in a “state of the nation for physical activity” for adults in Canada.
There are two kinds of reports, one for youth and one for adults.
“It has a lot of good stats and facts and grades based on various indicators,” said Dampier.
The participACTION Community Challenge is in its sixth year.
