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Horsefly takes silver

When Shirley Janzen heard about B.C.’s $69 million “Healthy Families BC” strategy, and its walking challenge contest, she knew Horsefly could win.
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CRD Area F director Joan Sorley and Horsefly resident Shirley Janzen show off a few od the new pedometers the Horsefly community won through the Healthy Families B.C. walking challenge contest.

When Shirley Janzen heard about B.C.’s  $69 million “Healthy Families BC” strategy, and its walking challenge contest, she knew Horsefly could win.

B.C. communities were divided into five groups by population, and community members were challenged to post entries about walking on the Walking Challenge website.

In each group, the community with the most entries was awarded $10,000 for trail development, and was entered in a random draw for a further $50,000.

Janzen started a phone marathon around Horsefly, some others joined in, and fingers started flying on computer keyboards telling walking stories.

For a while, the little community was neck-and-neck with Tumbler Ridge (at one point ahead by 30 votes), but the good citizens of Tumbler Ridge caught on and finished first with 1,152 entries in the under-5000 category.

Horsefly put up an awesome fight, and not only came second in their category, but with 883 entries, finished second overall in the province.

Horsefly won 100 pedometers by random draw during the contest, which will be distributed to all of the students in the school and to community volunteers.

Janzen is already thinking about the next opportunity to involve the community in a fitness challenge.