On July 1st, 2017, Canada will be celebrating 150 years since confederation and Canadian history in general. Because of this, all of 2017 is being filled with Canada 150 activities, including free admission to Canada’s national parks, many special events, projects, and general celebration!

ParticipACTION, a national organization promoting physical activity in Canada, is getting in on the action by challenging Canadians to complete activities from their Canada 150 Play List. Last fall, they asked Canadians what activities and sports they enjoyed and used the feedback to create this list. People can now complete those activities as individuals or as part of a group and mark their progress online and even win prizes! So basically, the more activities you complete from the play list, the more entries you get in the contest. Fun, right? I thought so!

I’ve been following this campaign from the beginning and submitted several activities for inclusion in the play list. In January, I decided that I was going to complete every item on the Canada 150 Play List in 2017! It’s one of my 2017 goals.

That’s right! By the end of the year, I want to point to this list and say that I’ve done it all. But that’s a big goal, right? It averages out to one new activity completed every 2.3 ish days, which isn’t too bad since some of the activities are very accessible. What’s gonna be hard is doing things like sledge hockey, dragon boating, horseback riding, waterskiing, etc since they require special equipment. It’s completely doable, though! And it will be done! 😀

What I’m looking forward to the most is sharing these experiences with friends and family, and maybe even make new friends too. Who knows where the play list will take me – there are some pretty crazy things on there! In the past several months, I’ve already completed several of the activities with a bunch of friends and family, including camping, hiking, snowball fighting, igloo building, walking, snowman building, gardening, tree climbing, car washing, geocaching, dancing and more. It’s been a total blast! But even if I’m completing items from the play list by myself, it’s progress. The big idea here is that I’m gonna keep active this year. And so far I’m doing pretty well!

Note to self: Don’t stay still! Move every day!

Watch out, Canada 150 Play List! I’m coming for you.