DR. MICHELLE LOCKYER

Practising family physician in Toronto

of resources that has made it all possible. Our aim is to empower families with the knowledge and skills to live a healthy and active lifestyle. We do this by providing the schools, teachers, parents and kids a packaged program that makes healthy and active living easily accessible. A healthy lifestyle game for children is a fantastic idea. However, given the issue we have with adults embracing healthy lifestyles, I am not surprised that it has been challenging to get Recess to take hold.

I believe that it is not the children choosing to play the game or not that will lead to the game being purchased and utilized. The parents must see the value in this as well. Working with many children and their families on a daily basis has taught me that parents are more likely to do something if it comes highly recommended from well-known authorities, such as the Canadian Pediatrics Society and the College of Family Physicians. Perhaps these organizations might consider recommending Recess to children aged six to It would certainly help children meet their daily activity requirements and learn healthy eating habits.

Health promotion and disease prevention must start early and that is the premise of a gamesuch as this one. It would be wonderful if all kids could play this game on a regular basis. Perhaps these organizations might be willing to recommend Recess and display a link to the game’s website.

If the game had this level of support behind it, combined with interactive demos and camps to get kids enthused and onboard, sales would take off. “We decided to work with local schools, holding our own Recess camps,” said Healthy1 Productions founder Lee Davy. “Going direct had the most opportunity to have an impact and to spread the message about Recess. We hope that once we’ve run thema few times, the camps can be taught as a course, delivered by other instructors, teachers and afterschool program providers.” Davy and his teamdecided not to pursue partnering with established programsor facilities, because it could be difficult to align priorities and create win/win situations as somepartners could want exclusivity rights. Currently, the Healthy1 team is in the process of meeting with local private schools and after-school program coordinators to launch the camps. The campswill be held at Dynamic Conditioning Centre’s downtown Toronto location.

RoHS

compliant