Recreation industry professionals throughout Saskatchewan are creating new programs to keep people in their communities active and thriving during the pandemic. Recently, I spoke with Ryan Dale, Recreation Director for the Town of Whitewood, to learn more about one of their recent innovations: the Winter Trail Trivia program.
What is the Winter Trail Trivia program?
The Winter Trail Trivia program is meant to get patrons out and active on our trails. What we did was incorporate trivia into our trails by posting questions along the route. We asked participants to post their answers and a photo of themselves while on the trail to our Facebook page to get entered in a draw to win a gift card. We had local companies donate gift cards as prizes for this program.
Where can people find the trail?
People may find the trail on our website Townofwhitewood.ca or on Alltrails.com. Look up Whitewood Winter Trails and Whitewood Walking Trails. Whitewood Winter Trails is open from November-Early March. This can be accessed at the north end of town next to the Dog Park.
What was the inspiration behind the Winter Trail Trivia program?
We knew our community enjoyed trivia and walking so we combined the two to create a new experience for the community. We really wanted to engage people with nature as well and they got that seeing deer, birds and even moose on our trails!
Who was responsible for making this initiative happen?
The Town of Whitewood’s great recreation staff as responsible for making this happen. Without the idea and the hard work maintaining these trails none of it would be possible. There were some cold days and high snow drifts, but it never stopped the staff from giving it their all for the betterment of our user’s experience.
What has the response been from the community?
The response from our community has been great with our video on Facebook seeing over 5000 views and the comments on the new site mainly being all positive. We were overwhelmed with the positive comments when we first opened the trails for the season.
What can other communities learn from your example?
I would say do a needs assessment for your community’s recreation and leisure needs and implement those needs into your plans. We did it with this idea and it worked out great for us.
Are you planning on continuing the program into the spring and summer?
We do plan on implementing Trivia on the summer trails to try and get more people to interact with that area of Whitewood which is the hub of our summer activity.
What other parks and recreation programs are you planning for the spring and summer seasons?
A lot of our plans may change or be modified due to the pandemic and if it gets better and or worse. As of now we plan on operating our newly renovated pool. We also have a few pending projects that will upgrade our parks and recreation sites tremendously. We also will look to have baseball, soccer and horseshoes going this season if they are allowed.
How important have parks and recreation been to the people of Whitewood during the pandemic?
Parks and Recreation have really helped this community through the pandemic by helping us maintain a healthy lifestyle. They were critical to the positive morality around this community. You could see the positive vibes from our community every time we launched a new site or program this winter. Parks and Recreation provided an outlet for patrons during this pandemic. It really brought our community together and outside during this unusual season.
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