CrownLife ParticipACTION Challenge
Fast Facts:
CrownLife ParticipACTION Challenge (Community Participation)
Dates: 1983-1995
Description: A community-based, one day, mass participation
activity challenge.
Funding: Crown Life Insurance Company
Overview
Developed and managed nationally by ParticipACTION beginning in
1983. Initial year developed in cooperation with the City of Saskatoon
and built upon its experience with the inter-city challenges against
the Swedish City of Umeo. Continued annually for 13 years.
Target audience: all citizens (all ages) in each
participating city.
Primary corporate partner was Crown Life Insurance Company. ParticipACTION
also contributed substantially from its own funding and human resources.
In addition, each participating community donated funds, human resources
and substantial volunteer time in support of their local organizing
committee.
No funding was provided by ParticipACTION to the local communities,
only educational and promotional materials to assist their efforts.
OBJECTIVES
- A community-based, one day, mass participation event encouraging
all citizens in each participating city to demonstrate their support
for healthy, active living
- Aims to profile and support the efforts of local organizations,
schools, workplaces, etc., who encourage regular physical activity
and/or offer activity programs
- A “try it” or first step opportunity for the inactive
to get started.
Build community pride.
RESOURCES
- Personalized letters and interpretive brochure mailed to over
1,000 community mayors and their recreation directors, each year,
inviting them to participate
- Registration form to be completed by mayor
- “Guide To Meeting The Challenge” – a “how
to” book for planning, developing and implementing the Challenge
at the community level
- “Great Ideas” – an extensive collection of
promotional and program ideas gleaned from the successful experiences
of other communities over the years
- Promotional Package – free materials in the volume required
by each participating community, including letterhead, posters,
flyers, logo sheets, print ads, volunteer “thank you”
certificates, certificate to present to “winning”
communities/mayors, interpretive video
- Challenge Merchandise – promotional merchandise for communities
to purchase including T-shirts and sweatshirts, baseball caps,
stickers, buttons, pens, pencils, water bottles, shoe laces, ParticipACTION
pins, etc.
IMPLEMENTATION
- Initial years communities were allocated to one of five groupings
depending on population size. Later years, each community was
matched to another of a similar size, which proved to be more
popular as there were more “winners”
- Became the largest physical activity participation event in
Canada. For many years, annually saw over 500 participating communities;
the donated time of approximately 850 paid staff locally (municipal
recreation personnel for example); over 22,500 volunteer leaders;
distribution of some 1.25 million promotional items bearing the
sponsor and ParticipACTION logos; in excess of $3 million (value)
in free, local media promotions; and over 4 million individuals
registered as active participants
- Required, on the honour system, for each participant to perform
at least 15 minutes of physical activity and then register their
participation with their organizing group (school, workplace,
volunteer organization, etc.) or telephone a local hotline (staffed
by volunteers).
This Canadian ParticipACTION Challenge, its success and “how
to” information, was shared with the international community
via the Trim and Fitness International Sport For All organization
(TAFISA), who build upon it
to establish the highly successful, annual, international Challenge
Day program which still continues and attracts over 25 million registered
participants each year.
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