‘Adventure Running Kids’ in race for People’s Choice Award

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/adventurekids.jpg” caption=”Adventure Running Kids, which combines trail, cross-country and snowshoe running with navigation and orienteering, has been nominated for the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s People’s Choice Award. The award would give the program more than $80,000 in funding.”]With a little bit of help, a children's outdoor adventure program launched by two McMaster professors can include even more area youth in the near future.

Adventure Running Kids – formed in 2010 by Mike Waddington, a professor of Geography & Earth Sciences, and Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of Medicine – has been nominated for the Ontario Trillium Foundation's People's Choice Award.

The award would earmark more than $80,000 to a program which combines trail, cross-country and snowshoe running with navigation and orienteering. The funds would help Adventure Running Kids expand to the Niagara and Kitchener-Waterloo areas.

“It's really great just to have been nominated,” said Waddington. “There's a real void of adventure running programs for kids in Southern Ontario, so we're hoping this helps us get the word out about what we're doing.”

When the program started, Waddington and Tarnopolsky hoped to target approximately 30 participants. It now includes nearly 250 youth, aged 6-16.

“We started Adventure Running Kids because, through work in our areas of research, we noticed that kids' health was decreasing, as was their knowledge and appreciation of the environment,” said Waddington.

Waddington and Tarnopolsky are themselves world-class adventure runners. Waddington is a three-time North American orienteering champion, and Tarnopolsky is a North American ski-orienteering
champion. The latter won more than 20 adventure races between 2000 and 2007.

Voting for the Ontario Trillium Foundation's People's Choice Award is now open. Details can be found at adventurerunningkids.ca/vote