The town of Hay River has once again been named a finalist in the 2026 Community Challenge.
Just last year, 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.
And in 2024, Hay River won the top prize in the national challenge, picking up $100,000 in prize funding. Last year they were painfully close to picking up the crown as defending champions, losing out to Richmond, B.C.
Diana Dampier, director of Projects and Stakeholder Relations with ParticipACTION, explained that the organization is dedicated to helping people expand their horizons to keep finding ways to exercise their physical mobility.
“ParticipACTION is 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 said 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 added communities are judged using a combination of a quantitative score and the qualitative submission.
Community organizers in Hay River say they are working on their 2026 finalist submission and are asking community members to submit pictures, videos or quotations about why they decided to join.
They are looking to hear about not only what community members enjoyed but also whether or not they felt encouraged to take part.
Organizers said they are accepting submissions until Thursday at noon.
North Now reached out for more details about the challenge this year and will share that information when it becomes available.
