Hay River is the reigning champion for the NWT when it comes to the ParticipACTION Community Challenge. The town was the most active when all of the activity was counted one year ago and won itself $15,000 to go toward recreation programming in the town.
This year, though, the town has its sights set on conquering the country and as of press time, it's looking rather good.
The 2024 edition of the national event kicked off on June 1 and will last for the entire month. The goal is to have as many people being as active as possible by registering events done by either individuals or groups which will count toward a community's total score. As of Tuesday, Hay River sat second in the national competition behind only Red Deer, Alta., but ahead of major locales in the top 20 such as Toronto and Quebec City.
Hay River is also tops in the territorial race with Fort Good Hope in second and Fort Simpson in third with Enterprise in fourth. As for the capital, Yellowknife was sixth as of Tuesday.
Courtney Fraser, the town's recreation programmer, said she's not terribly worried about the current standing and has no doubt Hay River will be tops at the end.
"We have 49 different groups tracking their activity and I'm confident we'll win it this year," she said on Monday.
One big kick Hay River received was the NWT Track and Field Championships with every single participant's results counting toward the town's totals, no matter where they hail from.
Fraser said that's because the championships registered as its own organization on the ParticipACTION website and because it all happened in Hay River, the activity totals stay in Hay River.
"That's going to go a long way toward our final total," she said.
Fraser and Jordan Froese have been making the push this year to get people signed up and the recruitment process is easy, said Fraser: get them as soon as they walk through the front doors the Hay River Community Centre.
"Jordan and I have been selling it really hard and we've signed up a ton of people at the rec centre," she said. "We also got a lot of organizations and businesses on board and the more we get signed up, the more that goes toward our total."
In addition to the track and field championships, Fraser pointed to a minor ball camp hosted by NWT Softball earlier this month at the Aurora Ford Arena, parent-organized walks and bike rides to school and some new programming started by the town.
"We started up something called the Playground Pop-Up," she said. "Day homes and daycares head over to a playground and our staff goes to hang out with the kids. We bring snacks and we do fun things with them and it's all about participation."
The $15,000 won by the town in 2023 went mostly toward either sprucing up equipment used for programming or to make programming free of charge, she added.
"For example, all of our fitness programs for the month of June are free, our lane swims at the aquatic centre are free, we have open swims that are free," she said. "Some of the money went to top up equipment for our multi-sport programming."
But if the town ended up winning the $100,000 grand prize? Fraser doesn't even know where to start.
"I have so many ideas," she said. "I think we would put it to the residents and get ideas on what they would like to see. I'd talk with the town and get their thoughts, but it would go a very long way, that's for sure."
Even though the challenge has started, you have until the very last minute - June 30 at 11:59 p.m. - to register and have your activity tracked. Once the challenge is over, ParticipACTION will select 50 community finalists from all 13 provinces and territories; the NWT will have two communities in the running for the top prize. The overall winners for each province and territory as well as the national champion will be announced on July 23.