Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation, Northern Health, and the Prince George Cougars visited Springwood Elementary on June 10 to present them as the winners of the Spirit of Healthy Kids program.
These three organizations have partnered to help bring the Spirit of Healthy Kids program.
The program, which began in 2016, tasks students with filling out forms that outline their healthy food choices, healthy lifestyle choices and other activities that encourage them to lead active and healthy lives.
Springwood Elementary had the highest number of participants with completed forms earning the school $5,000 to put toward a project of its choosing.
Schools across the North also received $1000 for their contributions towards the program:
- Suwilaawks Community School in Terrace for a Colour Walk Challenge
- Ecole La Grande-Ourse in Smithers for their read the trees outdoor literacy adventure
- Westwood Elementary in Prince George for a student-led wellness leadership
- Voyageur Elementary in Quesnel for a healthy snack charting and traditional food education
- Kilidala Elementary in Kitimat for a focus on healthy snacks and physical activity.
Spirit of the North CEO Amy Cassie told The Citizen about how this program has expanded over the years.
“This year we had a huge uptake with the program, over 3,500 students competed, and we were just thrilled that Springland was the selected school," she said. "They did a great job with their kids, and each school does something a little bit different. We had some schools do colour walks, we had other schools do focus on reading, and then this school of course focused on healthy activity and healthy lifestyles.
Children at Springwood put forward ideas to decide what the $5,000 will be spent on, ranging from a pool, new basketball hoops, a slip-and-slide, a community garden or greenhouse or repaving the school's blacktop.
Cassie told The Citizen that in the past the winners of these programs have put their money toward good use.
“We've seen a number of projects,” she said. “We've seen gardening projects, we've seen one school working on healthy snacks that would be available to kids in the school, and another school is working on healthy cooking, so kids how to make nutritious meals and then working with the seniors home that was their neighbor to bring those snacks to. There's been a lot of different ideas that schools have, and I think that is part of the beauty of the program is what they come up with and what they choose to do with those dollars, that's the exciting part.”
Across the north 3,533 students participated in the program total.
Registration for the 2025-2026 program will open soon. Visit spiritofthenorth.ca to learn more.
