Success stories
School activities
- Snow fort
- Tobogganing
- Try it, you’ll like it!
- An evening of skating
In the Mauricie region, all the students of Les Terrasses school (Commission scolaire du Chemin-du-Roy), led by their physical education teacher, spent a beautiful February day building a huge snow fort around their school. Protected as they were from the inclement winter weather, no doubt the children were able to play in the snow undisturbed.
The integrated Des Forges school, located in Trois-Rivières, partnered with the organizers of the Carnaval des Vieilles Forges to set up huge tobogganing runs that students were thrilled to hurtle down all bundled up and beaming with delight.
In addition to the regularly scheduled activities, the La Relève school, located in the Laurentides region, has organized family activities outside of school hours by setting up a system for loaning sports and outdoor equipment. In this way, young people and their parents were able to go cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and skating together. Through this initiative, equipment was used more frequently and parents became more involved in the different activities offered.
In Sherbrooke, the Sacré-Cœur and Soleil-Levant schools organized an evening of skating for students and their families. Because the children feel a sense of belonging to their schools, this annual event attracts hundreds of people to the municipal skating rink. Sacré-Cœur students skate to instrumental music recorded by the students of the school. New this year for the Soleil-Levant school: the borough agreed to take part in organizing the activity, especially where logistics were concerned. This is a good example of a partnership between schools and municipalities.
Municipalities and communities
- Various activities
- On the move!
- Every minute counts!
- Two skating rinks for the price of one!
- Fête des flocons
- Ice trail with fir trees and lights
- Sainte-Rose en Blanc
- A sea of activities
- Village Boréal de Saint-Félicien
- Village on ice
Skating to music by torchlight, building winter shelters, family ice sculpture contests and family bowling on ice are just some of the activities that the town of Val-David and its partners have organized as part of the Winter Fun campaign.
In Shawinigan, activities promoted as part of the Winter Fun campaign provided families with a fun-filled experience. They were able to go cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, skating and snow tubing free of charge throughout the winter. In addition, thanks to a partnership with the Parc national de la Mauricie, about 50 free admission tickets were given out by the Service loisirs, culture et vie communautaire to encourage participation in winter activities.
As part of the Winter Fun campaign, and in collaboration with Kino-Québec and the Agence de la santé et des services sociaux du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, municipalities in the region with 600 or fewer residents are invited to participate in Every Minute Counts! (in French only) The goal is to encourage people of all ages—children, teens, adults and seniors—to cross-country ski, snowshoe, skate and walk. Registration is from January 24 to February 11 and the event will take place from February 12 to March 13. People who have registered can call their municipality once a week to report their number of minutes of activity. In front of the town hall, a sign with a graduated column of 200 000 minutes will be updated as results come in.
In 2009-2010, 60% of the women and 40% of the men registered, and that alone encouraged people to get into the habit of doing physical activity and participating in community development. It also motivated them to make a concerted effort to organize physical activities in their municipality. From an individual standpoint, encouraging participants to accumulate minutes by doing physical activity is an effective way to instill healthy lifestyle habits. Collective mobilization in these small municipalities helps to generate enthusiasm among residents. From an environmental standpoint, municipalities are pleased to see their outdoor facilities, such as skating rinks and snowshoe trails, put to good use.
In the town of Saint-Valérien, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, the Corporation sports et loisirs found the necessary funding to buy a net that safely divided the skating rink into two sections. It is now possible to play hockey and have free skating at the same time. In addition, because the net is easy to set up, it is not difficult to spontaneously organize one or two activities at once. This has greatly increased the number of people using the skating rink.
In the Centre-du-Québec region, the people of Drummondville celebrated the Fête des flocons with a delicious brunch before relaxing in a snow bath. The younger participants could attend medieval combat shows and use the tobogganing runs as well as the skating rinks and inflatable modules. Everyone was invited to try out various winter activities and take part in a friendly game of snout.
As part of the Winter Fun campaign, the town of Nominingue, located in the heart of the Upper Laurentians, built an ice trail featuring fir trees and lights. This facility made it possible to hold a winter carnival involving a multitude of activities, including snowshoeing by torchlight and Olympic games. In addition, local partners took the opportunity to offer the public horse-drawn sleigh rides.
Created to mark Laval’s 40th anniversary, Sainte-Rose en Blanc is now the city’s largest winter festival. For six days, festival goers and their families can take advantage of the best that winter has to offer thanks to a varied program of free activities: skating on a rink built along the banks of the Mille-Îles river, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, supervised climbing walls, tobogganing, guided historical and heritage walks, dogsled and sleigh rides, snow sculpture workshops, and music and dance shows.
The north shore municipality of Portneuf-sur-Mer offers one of the most colourful activity programs of the Winter Fun campaign. During the mid-winter break, the public is invited to take part in a variety of activities: tobogganing, community walks, snowshoe baseball, ball hockey, treasure hunts, skating under the stars, children’s Olympics, disco on ice, outdoor workouts, etc. The activities are held in a festive atmosphere where houses and properties are decorated with outdoor lights and snow or ice sculptures. Free activities, snacks, meals and access to equipment are made possible thanks to an agreement between the school and the municipality (snowshoes can be loaned) and the cooperation of businesses, the Maison des jeunes, the Knights of Columbus and volunteers.
One of the reasons for creating the Village Boréal de Saint-Félicien, located on the Ashuapmuschuan river, is to promote physical activity. An ice ring, a walking ring, tobogganing hills and a skating rink were built to give people the opportunity to be physically active in the winter months. The Village Boréal de Saint-Félicien is characterized by its friendly atmosphere, its reception centre, its outdoor activities, its accessibility, its proximity to the town core, its convenient parking facilities and even the limited number of cabins on the ice. The initiative has kept growing in popularity ever since it was launched by a group of local businesspeople. The Village Boréal de Saint-Félicien is an eloquent example of how the townspeople and people from the surrounding area have learned to love and make the most of winter, and are reaping the many health benefits.
Every winter in Roberval for the past few years, a 1-km ice ring has been built on Lac Saint-Jean and a 1-km hiking trail has been set up around it. In the centre of the ring, three hockey rinks and a miniature golf on ice course have been added to this very safe facility. Furthermore, ice skates are loaned free of charge by the Club Richelieu. The people of Roberval have been asked to take up the challenge of being part of this year’s Winter Fun campaign. This entire experience has been most enjoyable for and of great benefit to the people of Roberval, who have the opportunity to engage in physical activity throughout the winter. To mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of Roberval, miniature houses were added to create a village on ice with its very own mayor and councillors. In 2008, Roberval was crowned Hockeyville in Canada. With support from the municipality, volunteers actively participate in bringing this village on ice to life and encourage the public to be physically active on a regular basis.
