Melonie Dziwenka has a lot on the go these days as she runs around town. Come Saturday, she won’t be the only one.
Morinville’s recreational and cultural co-ordinator has organized the first ever Morinville Fitness Challenge. The outdoor exercise event is meant to get people of all fitness and activity levels out on the streets and moving their bodies, just for the sake of it. If Dziwenka has her way, this fun will have residents smiling year after year as a regular occurrence. The next one is already being developed for the spring.
“This will be a little bit more focused around the core of Morinville,” she says. “The spring one will be a little bigger, stretching a little farther.”
The fitness challenge is an extension of the ChooseWell program that ended last month. That initiative of the provincial government was designed to encourage communities to improve their citizens’ health and wellness.
“We really started making some great strides to making Morinville more active.”
The event will operate as a fun run with interesting diversions. Think of it as The Amazing Race on a local scale. Participants will get maps and set off as quickly as they can from the starting point at the Community Cultural Centre. There is no set route but they do have to arrive at various stops along the way.
At each of these eight stations, there are extra mental or physical challenges worth reward points towards prizes. The physical challenges are designed so that everyone can complete them.
“It’s just an opportunity to get people thinking active,” she emphasized.
The next challenge will be in May, in time for National Youth Week. Dziwenka said that she’s planning a youth GPS event.
While the fitness challenge will get people moving, it also serves as a great social occasion and an economic engine since the challenges will occur at local businesses and facilities primarily along 100 Avenue and 100 Street.
“How is that not positive for our community?”
Registration takes place at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday with the run setting off at 10 a.m. The event area will extend from the cultural centre to the Ray McDonald Sports Centre and as far south as Curves.
The cost is $10 per person and children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Please register by Friday.
To learn more, please contact Dziwenka at 780-939-7833.
