PORT HOOD: Inverness County finished first in Nova Scotia in the Community Better Challenge.
During the month of June, which is Recreation Month, Charlotte MacDonald, Inverness County’s Director of Recreation, told the July 7 regular monthly meeting of Inverness Municipal Council, that Participaction issues a national physical activity challenge.
“The Community Better Challenge, their aim is to get Canadians more active and get them to register their steps, and report their steps to represent their community,” she told council.
MacDonald said the Recreation and Community Wellness Department “promoted, recruited, and rallied” to identify Sport and Activity Champions from one end of the municipality to the other.
“We had 14 organizations participate, we had 56 individuals participate, but this is the number that I find most impressive, we recorded 680,000 minutes of activity for the county, and as a result we placed first this year in the province,” she said to applause from council and the gallery. “We placed 32nd in the nation, so we’re really excited.”
As a result of their Top 50 national ranking, Inverness County is invited to bid on the $100,000 grand prize, MacDonald said.
“We are actively in pursuit of finishing that application,” she said. “So stay tuned, there may be another update.”
This week, the provincial awards will be handed out, MacDonald said, noting next steps are to aim for a Top 10 national placement next year.
“While we are really, really excited about our placements this year, we also want to point out that we have made a huge improvement. Last year, provincially we placed 28th, to give you some perspective,” she said. “I think this will rally people.”
After councillors congratulated MacDonald and her team for the successful effort, Warden Bonny MacIsaac added that even yard work, house work and walking the dog were included among the activities.
“Some of us don’t jog well anymore but we can do other things,” she added. “It was great, just for people to get moving so that’s fantastic. It was fun to do that.”