The Waswanactive Challenge! was a physical activity challenge for all Waswanipi residents aged 13 and up. To participate, you had to make a team of five people and be as physically active as possible during two weeks, between May 23 and June 5.
Members of the team could accumulate their minutes of activity together or separately. The minutes of physical activity of each member of a team were added up. The duration of the physical activity had to be at least 10 minutes, non-stop. For example: if one member of a team walked to work for 10 minutes, another one spent 15 minutes chopping wood, two others walked together after work for 45 minutes and the last member played hockey for 60 minutes, the team then accumulated 160 minutes.
Participants could have practiced, for example, the following physical activities: walking, running, cycling, rollerblading, hockey, volleyball, badminton, baseball, woodchopping, hunting (on foot), gardening, canoeing, cleaning, etc.
Thirteen teams totaling 65 people participated in the Waswanactive Challenge! During two weeks, these participants did 44,290 minutes of physical activity, an average of 49 minutes of physical activity per day per person!
The first three teams:
Team Evolution (Kory Sean Saganash, Curtis Blackned, Kyle Mark, Alex Mark, and Joshua Blacksmith): 11,726 minutes of physical activity.
Baby Faces Team (Ghislain Ottereyes, Dany Leduc, Daniel Pelletier, Lee Roy Blacksmith, and Innot Mushayuma): 6,350 minutes of physical activity.
Jimmy’s Team (Jimmy Moore, Alice Blacksmith, Flora Moore, Clyde Burn, Jeffrey Blacksmith): 4,718 minutes of physical activity.
At the closing supper and the award ceremony held June 6, $1,000 in gift certificates were given to the participating members of the three best teams plus five other participants in a draw.
For their assistance, we would like to thank Daniel Pelletier (W.J.H.M.S.), Rita M. Trapper and Annika Vachon (CLSC); for their financial support, the Cree School Board (Gordon Gilpin, C.E.A.) and the Waswanipi Recreation Department (Brian Ottereyes).
Congratulations to all the participants for their efforts: they have all won a healthier life. We hope that they will be a model for all the Cree people.
(Olivier Girondier teaches Phys. Ed. at W.J. Happyjack Memorial School)
