City of Lacombe has been recognized for its commitment to healthy living by the Alberta government.

Alberta Recreation and Parks Association presented the City with the Choosewell Healthy Community Award for Providing Healthy Education.

The award highlights the work the City’s done in 2017, including their work with the Lacombe Food Bank and Central Alberta Woodworkers Guild in the building of community gardens and revamping the Find the Right Fit program to increase public participation.

Choosewell Coordinator Sonya Beauclair said it’s something to be very proud of.

“I guess they recognize the hard work that we’re doing and we do try to pick different things each year to focus on. Some years we focused on kids, some years we focused on seniors and some years we just tried to do as much we can in different things to really raise awareness.”

“The big thing is making people aware of the program and understanding that if they see the logo attached to something, it does mean it’s a healthy choice.”

Beauclair said it took time, but the community is starting to see the value in the program.

“I’ve been doing Choosewell for about six years now and at the beginning no one cared too much about it. It took a lot of time and persistence to get it to the point now where people are starting to know about and are starting to be more engaged in the different programs we run throughout the year and they’re a little more excited about it.”

Their next big initiative is taking place near the end of January called the Winter Active Challenge, which is focused on getting people active for 30 minutes a day for 21 days.

For more information on the Choosewell program click here.