اخبار العرب-كندا 24: الأحد 21 أبريل 2024 05:35 صباحاً
Salisbury, a small town in southeastern New Brunswick, wants to make recreation more affordable for everyone.
It was named Canada's most active community in 2023 as part of a challenge put on by ParticipAction, a national non-profit that promotes healthy living and physical fitness. To win, people in the town tracked more than 10.4 million minutes of physical activity. The prize, along with bragging rights, awarded the town $100,000 dollars, which went to trail work.
Massimo Caracristi, the town's director of recreation and wellness, said as the 2023 titleholders of the country's most active community, "we have a duty to all of our residents to make recreation as accessible as possible."
So the town has just introduced a new program called FAR: Financial Assistance for Recreation. Its goal is to provide financial assistance to families for youth recreational activities. It's funded by donors and sponsors, with a budget allowance from the town and year-round fundraising.
Massimo Caracristi, the town's director of recreation and wellness, hopes the financial assistance program will be a permanent fixture. (Submitted by Massimo Caracristi)
Caracristi said there are two streams of funding needed — one for registration costs and one for things associated with the program itself, such as gas, equipment, transportation and hotels.
The assistance is capped at $300 per child or if a family has more than one child, $500 per household.
Salisbury residents and organizations tracked over 10.4 million minutes of physical activity during June of 2023. This photo was taken during the closing ceremony of the ParticipAction challenge. (Submitted by Massimo Caracristi)
He said sports are going to probably make up the majority of the applications, however the assistance can also be used toward other things, including theatre, camp registration or gym memberships.
He said for the registration funding stream, Salisbury-based recreation activities will be given higher priority, as well as a family's financial situation and the number of activities the child is participating in.
A group of kids before the ParticipAction youth ball-hockey tournament held last June in Salisbury. (Submitted by Massimo Caracristi)
As it currently stands, the program is in a pilot phase, but Caracristi said the aim is to make it permanent, a lot of donors and sponsors have already committed to multiple years.
He said he will be tracking the data throughout the year, but so far, it seems that it will be sustainable. He said he will ensure that enough money is allocated for each application cycle — one in May for summer, one in September for fall and one in January for winter.
As part of last year's ParticipAction challenge, a group of adults took part in a pickleball tournament. (Submitted by Massimo Caracristi)
This year will be about learning how to make the program work, he said. For example, if he notices that a lot more money is going out for winter programming, because of the expensive nature of sports like hockey, or if there's more going out for summer because of camp fees, that will be taken into account next year.
Since announcing the program, Caracristi said residents have been really appreciative.
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