The East Ferris Golden Age Club is challenging all East Ferris residents, regardless of age, to get up, get active and get fit.
Club Action 50+ East Ferris has enrolled the municipality in the ParticipACTION Community Better Challenge.
In addition to the health and social benefits, the community could win the grand prize of $150,000 if it logs the most tracked minutes based on physical activity.
“That is Canada wide, or we could win $20,000. They have six regions in Canada and each region will win $20,000, which would be nice too,” explained Sue Foster organizer of the East Ferris ParticipACTION Community Better Challenge.
A check early Wednesday morning showed the community holding onto fifth place across the country.
“It started on May 31st and it runs until June 16th and we’re doing really well. It fluctuates as people enter their times. We’re realizing what we knew all along, that we really have an active community,” said Foster.
“Anyone wanting to participate can go on participaction.com and download the app on their smartphone or they can go on the website on their computer and register their minutes there as they do different activities. It could be running, walking, biking, swimming, whatever they do to stay active. Now they’ve actually added more activities like yoga. They have one called other activities which could even include things like washing windows. You click on whatever activity you did and it brings up where you track your minutes.”
There are many activities to choose from including weeding the garden, cutting the grass, dancing, or playing with the children.
A ParticipACTION walk was held during last weekends East Ferris Senior 50+ Summer Games.
“The theme is walking and that is how this all started. They picked the theme and got almost all 167 games participants and 60 volunteers walking to add to their Community Better Challenge time,” said Pauline Rochefort, Mayor of East Ferris.
“The walk was at least three kilometres, some walked it all, others walked what they could because some are not as mobile. It wasn’t about how far and how fast you walked, it was how many minutes you could record, and the goal was 40 minutes. And really, the games they played all day counted towards our minutes for the ParticipACTION Challenge.”
The challenge ends on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 16.
“It’s not necessarily the one that has the most minutes that wins. They have quite a range of questions each community will have to answer such as which activities did they do?” said Foster.
“We have the schools participating. We have all the organizations in East Ferris whether it is the soccer program or pickleball. There’s numerous organizations so they’re all involved.”
Activity levels are adjusted for community size.
