The Town of Pincher Creek goes out of its way to promote affordable physical activities to residents, “because that way, everyone can participate, and having the money to be active isn’t a barrier,” says Town of Pincher Creek director of community services Diane Burt Stuckey. “We have enough barriers in our own head when we say things like, ‘I don’t feel like exercising.’ This way, they don’t need to think about where they are going to find the money.”
Healthy eating, physical activity and active living are all priorities for Pincher Creek, a Communities ChooseWell 2017 Developing Healthy Policies Award winner.
Thanks to ChooseWell, the town was inspired to move forward in changing its concession agreement, asking for healthy food options to be included on the menu at its multi-purpose recreational facility.
As part of Canada 150 celebrations in 2017 and to encourage people to be more physically active, the town offered residents free swimming passes for the entire year. It was a smashing success: overall attendance went up by 25 per cent, with adult usage up by a whopping 47 per cent. This year, the town is encouraging people to continue swimming, by allowing all youth to swim for free, and with reduced adult fees to swim. “A lot of people are buying passes for lane swimming,” Burt Stuckey says, noting that the number of swimmers has increased so much that people have been asking for additional days, because the lanes are so full.
To encourage residents to get out into the fresh air, the town is creating a dog park, located east of the Juan Teran ball diamond. The town has also designated an off-leash area by the agricultural grounds.
In another initiative, Pincher Creek has signed on to the Prescription to Get Active program, in partnership with Alberta Health Services. Physicians with the Pincher Creek Primary Care Network give patients a prescription to participate in a physical fitness activity whenever it’s required. Of the prescriptions that have been written to date, 30 per cent have made it to the town’s multi-purpose recreational facility, which is offering Prescription to Get Active participants a free month of swimming or free fitness classes for a month. To encourage them to continue their activity after the month is up, the town is offering Prescription to Get Active participants a 25 per cent discount on the purchase of a recreation facility pass.
In the next five years, Burt Stuckey sees the town continuing to encourage residents to be active in their own ways, whether it’s going swimming, heading to the dog park or walking or snowshoeing on the local trail system. “We are always open to requests from the community,” she says, in terms of people letting the town know what kinds of activities they would like to do.
She also hopes that residents will start to become more active out-of-doors, as Pincher Creek is ideally situated for outdoor recreation, just 30 minutes from Castle Wildland Provincial Park, Castle Provincial Park, and Waterton Lakes National Park.
Burt Stuckey has high praise for town council in backing all of Pincher Creek’s healthy living initiatives. “They really understand the relationship between physical activity and family time – swimming together, recreating together – it’s awesome.”