Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 11, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Ian Legaree's office is no longer full of crazy carpets, but he couldn't be happier.

Legaree, director of sport, recreation and youth at the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA), said the territory's first Get Winter Active campaign was a big success.

"We'd hope we'd have enough participants to give out all the carpets," Legaree said.

From January to March, youth ages five to 18 could pick up a scorecard. After collecting 20 stamps for participating in winter sports, kids could turn in the card and receive a crazy carpet for tobogganing.

Legaree said 431 children participated across the NWT, for a total of 9,881 hours of physical activity. And MACA has no crazy carpets left.

"Physical activity is a big health concern of ours," Legaree said.

"The more physically active you are the less likely you are to get the more serious diseases when you're older," he said. Some of those diseases are diabetes and degenerative bone diseases like osteoporosis.

The campaign was a spinoff from MACA's Get Active campaign, which happens from May to July.

Get Winter Active promotes physical activity for youth, but also encouraged them to get their parents involved, Legaree said.

Sports kids marked down included skiing, hockey, sledding and all the other popular winter activities with youth.

But Legaree said he also saw a few kids taking their dogs for a walk on the forms, which he said was great to see.

Originally the NWT had been involved in national campaigns for physical activity, Legaree said, but the response wasn't as positive.

"We've found that Northerners connect better with things that are more local. It's just that little extra incentive."