The Saugeen Times

Township wins prize for Longest Day of PLAY in Bruce and Grey
By Liz Dadson

Huron-Kinloss news

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Cathy Smart (L), co-ordinator of the Longest Day of PLAY in Bruce and Grey, presents the grand prize to Huron-Kinloss mayor Mitch Twolan and township PLAY co-ordinator Kim Reid in the Lewis Park playground in Ripley

Huron-Kinloss Township registered almost 7,000 hours of play to win the Longest Day of PLAY in Bruce and Grey challenge June 21.

Cathy Smart, co-ordinator of the event, was in Ripley last week to present the basket of goodies to Huron-Kinloss mayor Mitch Twolan and township PLAY co-ordinator Kim Reid.

PLAY ambassadors hosted activities throughout the township, with several games of "Capture the Flag" taking place in Ripley, Lucknow and Point Clark. In total, Huron-Kinloss earned 6,992 PLAY hours to take the challenge.

Joan Nelson and the Lucknow Public School had the largest contribution to PLAY. Other contributions came from the Ripley-Huron Community School, T-ball, baseball and the Ripley walkers.

Smart said the goal of the event was to get communities of people outside playing games and interacting with each other.

"We want to turn this into an annual event to increase the momentum of active communities," she said.

The PLAY in Bruce and Grey program has been around since 2007 but Smart was hired to ramp it up a bit and make it more exciting.

She came up with the county-wide challenge and several area businesses donated prizes to the goody basket, including walking sticks, gift certificates, water bottles, cool packs, pedometers, soccer balls, T-shirts and tool kits.

Reid said a good portion of the items would go to the Lucknow school which participated the most, logging 584 hours. She said the total hours registered for the township equalled the number of participants multiplied by the hours of PLAY.

As a result of the Longest Day of PLAY, the Huron-Kinloss recreation department has posted the rules for "Capture the Flag" on the side of the washrooms in Lewis Park, Ripley, encouraging young people to get outside and play. Rules for other outdoor games will be added over the summer, said Reid.

As the first-time winner of the Longest Day of PLAY in Bruce and Grey, Huron-Kinloss will have to defend its title next year, said Twolan. "It was a lot of fun and hopefully, it will act as a starting point to get our communities out and about and living a more active lifestyle."

For more information about PLAY, visit www.playbrucegrey.com

Meanwhile, if you're out and about in Ripley, you'll notice new storyboards in Lewis Park, telling about the history of the village, business in Ripley, and Lewis Park.