There's a party in Desbarats. You're invited

NEWS RELEASE

JOHNSON TOWNSHIP

************************* Johnson Township marks WinterActive Community Challenge Award with recreation celebration

DESBARATS - The Township of Johnson has received a WinterActive Community Challenge Award from Parks and Recreation Ontario as “one of the most active communities in the province.”

The township’s Recreation Committee will celebrate this award and all of its 2007-08 recreation activities with a special Recreation Celebration on Saturday, May 3, at the Johnson Township Community Centre.

The celebration will take the form of a potluck supper and various activities will be provided for area children on the arena floor prior to supper.

The activities portion of the event is supported by a grant from the Heart and Stroke Foundation for an initiative put together by Pat O’Gorman, Johnson Township program director for youth recreation.

This initiative - called “Ready, Set Go!”- plans, in part, to utilize the talents and skills of area high school students to mentor younger children in the community in the benefits of physical activity. “This award and the Recreation Celebration pay homage to the wonderful community we live in and is both a community celebration and a community thank-you to all the families, coaches, officials and volunteers who help create a vital recreation program,” O’Gorman stated. “In some ways I believe this award reflects well on the entire North Shore. We at Johnson Township are aided not only by our own committed volunteers but also by folks from Tarbutt, St. Joseph Island, Bruce Mines, Laird and Echo Bay, as well as by staff and students from CASS and the cooperation of all the area elementary schools to help make our programs successful.”

Since many children from the Township of Tarbutt attend the local school and are involved in many of the local teams, Tarbutt Township Council has agreed that the Recreation Celebration be presented by both townships. The Townships of Johnson and Tarbutt’s Recreation Celebration will begin with an activity program at 4:30 p.m. in the rrena followed by a potluck supper at 6 p.m. in the community hall.

Call Pat to RSVP or for more information at 782-6601, ext. 205. WinterActive, and its upcoming SummerActive initiative, is led by the Government of Canada in collaboration with the provincial and territorial governments.

It is designed to encourage Canadians to adopt healthier lifestyles, including participating in physical and sport activities, making healthier food choices and living tobacco-free.

The SummerActive and WinterActive websites also provide tools and resources for community leaders and individual Canadians to register and promote the events they are organizing.

Event organizers and individuals who register their participation in SummerActive events are eligible to win prizes.

Information about both initiatives can be found at this website. In Ontario, SummerActive is administered by Parks and Recreation Ontario (PRO).

PRO is an all-inclusive, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people of Ontario. *************************