Hay River was named Canada's Most Active Community in the ParticipACTION Community Challenge back in July. It just took a little while longer to make it completely official.
The town came out to celebrate the moment on Oct. 19 with the main event happening at the Aurora Ford Arena. That's where ParticipACTION handed over the proverbial big cheque of $100,000, the grand prize in the national competition. It's a marked improvement for the town, which finished inside the top-10 in Canada in 2023, but still won $15,000 as the most active community in the NWT.
Close to 50 organizations in Hay River signed up to keep track of how active they were from June 1 to June 30. The goal was to have as many people as possible being active with the totals being counted toward a community's totals. ParticipACTION then chose 50 community finalists from all 13 provinces and territories to vie for the big prize.
Courtney Fraser, the town's recreation director, said it's now sinking in.
"Now it feels real," she said on Monday. "We waited a long time for this and to have ParticipACTION come and help us celebrate was phenomenal."
Fraser said the town has already received the money and it's already been accounted for.
It will be split two ways: 20 per cent will go toward the town's recreation programming, while the other 80 per cent will go toward the first phase of revitalizing Inukshuk Park in the town's 553 area.
"It's in a bit of rough shape," admitted Fraser. "The first things we plan to do are to put new boards up around the Ray Benoit (Outdoor) Rink and resurface the asphalt. We're also going to be adding some outdoor programming, such as new backboards for basketball, a pickleball court and a general sprucing up of the area."
While the $80,000 from the prize will go a long way, Fraser said it won't cover the entire repair bill.
"We do have some grant money that will help as well, but this money will take care of a good portion of it," she said.
In addition to the ceremony at centre ice, there was plenty for the community to take part in. There was table tennis, speed skating, public skating and minor hockey exhibitions at the arena, while the Hay River Curling Club hosted an adult learn-to-curl and other activities. The aquatic centre even hosted what it called a "dive-in movie" in the evening.
Both the Doug Wieterman Hall and community hall also had food for everyone to enjoy.
With the $100,000 all pocketed and lined up to be spent, what does the town do now? You go out and win it again, of course. There is no rule about a community winning the grand prize either back-to-back or multiple times and Fraser made sure of that before stating that the town will try to win it all again next year.
"I went through the rules and I even talked to Jon (Malton) of ParticipACTION and he told me there's nothing that says we can't win a second time," she said. "We've already started talking about what to do because we'd love to have another $100,000."
