Groups share ChooseWell Healthy Award
Chinook Arch Library, College Be Fit For Life honoured
Chinook Arch Library and the Lethbridge College Be Fit For Life (BFFL) program share a passion of bringing active living opportunities to as many people as possible.
With a new successful partnership between the organizations, they were recently recognized with a ChooseWell Healthy Community Award.
Chinook Arch was recognized for its creation of physical activity resources, which are available for use by the 31 rural member libraries in the region, when planning and delivering community-based programming. Known as the Regional Programming Collection, the resources include giant checkers, parachutes, juggling scarves, indoor mini golf, hoops and other physical literacy games.
“As community hubs for activity and information, libraries strive to serve their communities to the best of their ability,” says Lisa Weekes, manager of Partnerships and Community Development for Chinook Arch. “It is through unique collaborations that libraries are able to offer a wider variety of programming than they could on their own.”
The collaboration on the project began with the BFFL staff providing physical literacy training and programming ideas for the regional library staff.
“I think it is always a wonderful thing when you can partner with another group and make a positive impact on the community,” says Tiffany Wideen, program administrator for BFFL. "We loved the ideas of sharing active-living opportunities with the people who call rural communities home.”
“The power of partnerships never fails to amaze me,” adds Weekes. “Together we were able to offer what neither organization could on its own.”
The ChooseWell Healthy Community Awards celebrate the efforts and achievements of communities and wellness champions across Alberta that are promoting active living. Weekes happily accepted the award in the category of “Building Community Capacity” that was presented in October during the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association Conference.