The Town of Salisbury has been named the national winner of this year’s ParticipACTION Community Challenge.
Having held more than 70 sessions of free public activities, such as Zumba classes, kayaking and much more, the title has been well earned.
On Tuesday, Salisbury was officially awarded the title of Most Active Community throughout all of Canada.
“What that means is that our community came together throughout the month of June,” Austin Henderson, chief administrative officer for the town, said in an interview.
“It meant over 750 residents, over 50 businesses and organizations joined up and we tracked over 10.3 million minutes of physical activity in our community.”
Along with the title of Canada’s Most Active Community, Salisbury has also been awarded a $100,000 grand prize.
In a news release, the town said it sent around a survey in June to determine how to use the $15,000 it received after being named New Brunswick’s Most Active Community last year.
Fifty-four per cent of community members voted to hold onto the winnings in hopes of winning the $100,000 top prize this year.
Now that Salisbury has officially earned that title, there will be a new survey circulated in the following weeks to decide what should be done with the money.
“This is our third year participating in the challenge,” said Henderson. “This year we really found, after winning the provincial title last year, that residents were engaged and were eager and were really looking forward to the challenge.”
Henderson said that the town started planning for the challenge very early on in the year, with some community members even reaching out to ask what the game plan was and how they were planning to win.
“They very much had their eyes on the prize,” he said.
Henderson said the money can be put toward anything related to recreation, but they plan on making it a community decision.
In the coming weeks, the town plans to send out a new survey offering five or six options they can spend their total of $115,000 on.
As for next year, Henderson said Salisbury will be fighting to maintain its title of Canada’s Most Active Community.
“I think our community has shown that we’re a little bit competitive with this challenge now,” he said.
With files from Tara Clow.
