Moosomin a finalist for Community Challenge

Moosomin is one of two finalists in Saskatchewan and one of 40 finalists across Canada for the Participaction Community Challenge.

Moosomin is one of two finalists in Saskatchewan and one of 40 finalists across Canada for the Participaction Community Challenge. The top community in Saskatchewan will win $10,000 and the top community across Canada will win $100,000. Moosomin made it into the top two in Saskatchewan and the top 40 in Canada based on the amount of physical activity people reported in the community in the month of June.

The final selection will be based on as a review of each community’s application, in which each community sets out how they promote health and fitness. “The Community Challenge is a program run across Canada, mostly to support healthier and more active living,” said Zoie Ferguson of the town of Moosomin. “During the month of June, we submitted numbers from all of the people we talked to in Moosomin.

“We partnered with every gym in town, we did the Cobblestone building, and multiple other groups. The people that were active there would give me their numbers for how active they were.” Moosomin had an early lead in the challenge, and finished ahead of much bigger centres.

“We were actually first in Saskatchewan for a while, and then we went to second in terms of numbers. We ended up being in the top 40 in all of Canada, above Calgary, which I took note of,” said Ferguson She said that they were also able to count the activities that kids did in school toward the total.

“We were able to get the schools as well, so we counted each kid per gym class for each day of school in June.” The month of June was designated as the month that activity data would be collected, but having high numbers alone doesn’t guarantee that a community will win. “The data collection was just for the month of June, and the winners aren’t just based on that data.

We had a bunch of other questions that we had to answer. Those were about things like safety, inclusivity, and how much we constantly supported active living outside that June.“ Ferguson said that Angela Thorn was the driving force behind getting Moosomin to where it is in the competition.

“Angela decided that she wanted to put us in the challenge and see how well we could do. I was also involved with it quite a bit, making the promotional stuff and reaching out to different businesses. I was the one making sure that people got their numbers in on time, and then going through and submitting those numbers.”

Not only is Moosomin a finalist in the provincial category, but the national finals as well. “There are two amounts of money that we can win. It’s $10,000 to the top community in a province, and $100,000 to the national winner.

“We are also in the national finals. How that works is that the top two from each province and territory are automatically selected. Moosomin and Ituna, who are the other finalist, are in the national final.

For the remaining 14 spots, they get the top 14 finishers in Canada that were not top two in their province or territory. Moosomin and Ituna were the only two communities from Saskatchewan that made it into the national finals. Some provinces have more than two because they had communities make it on one of the other 14 spots,” said Ferguson.

She said that if the town is awarded money, it will be used to support active living at home. “If Moosomin wins the $10,000 prize, all of that money will be staying in town, and go toward things in our community. Participaction’s funding guidelines state that the money awarded from the Community Challenge can only be used for certain things.

It can be used for capitals builds like playgrounds or recreational trails, to start new programs for equity-denied groups, buying equipment, or for physical activity strategy development. Ferguson said that she believes the large number or recreational facilities and programs in town contributed to Moosomin’s score. “I think the reason we did so well is because there are so many physical activities that are available in Moosomin.

We made sure to talk to every gym and every active business, we did minor ball and soccer, and even things like the Sportsplex walking track and pickleball. We got the schools and any small businesses we could. The finalists were based on numbers only, and the winner will go off the questions we answered.”

The date when the winning communities will be notified is just days away. “The winning communities will be notified on July 16th, and Participatction will announce the winners on the 22nd.”