/ What Exactly Does Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection Do?

Hello and welcome to the Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection’s brand new blog.  In choosing the topic for our first blog post, I thought long and hard and eventually came up with the oft asked, but difficult to answer question of “Who are the Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection and what do they do?” Being new to the organization, this is a question I have recently asked myself.

If you were to check out our website’s ‘About Us’ section, you would see that it says:

“The Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection (GPRSC) is a volunteer-driven, non-profit organization representing and serving the Grande Prairie and Area sport community. Our vision is to be a strong and connected sport community in the Grande Prairie Region.”

Okay, but what exactly does that mean?  How do we do that?  How do we support and enhance the area’s sport community? Well, it turns out we do it through a number of different means.

For an individual we can help you find a specific sport or answer your questions about the local sport scene.  I have a child who wants to play ‘Sport A’, is there a local club?  When do they practice?  How much is it?  Can I sign up?… We will find the answers to your questions and put you in contact with the representatives of the sport in our area. (Much of that information is also available in our websites ‘Find A Sport’ section.

For sport organizations, whether they are registered non-profits, newly formed drop-in groups, or long running, established facilities we offer assistance in many ways.

As you may or may not know, most sport organizations are run by volunteers.  This means that the people running the sport have a passion for the sport and the drive to see it succeed and be represented in our communities, but they may not always have the time, manpower or skillset to do so. (It takes an astonishing array of skills to run a successful sport organization.)  That is where we step in.  We can assist sport organizations where needed.  A few of the services we provide include:

We also plan and host a number of our own events to help promote the regional sport scene.

First, we have our best-known event, Try-It Day which is typically held twice a year.  The event lets regional youth, ages 6-17, participate in various sports on offer from our sport organizations.  This event is FREE for the sport organizations and participants thanks to the amazing community sponsors we find.

 

Second, we have the Northwest Alberta Sport Excellence Awards which highlight achievements in sport from the previous year.  It gives our communities the chance to celebrate athletes, coaches, volunteers, officials, events and organizations for their accomplishments.  The region covers from Fox Creek to Slave Lake and the NWT & BS borders.  Nominations are open January 1 – 31 annually.

 

Third we have the Alberta North Sport Conference which is a biennial sport conference put on locally.  The theme of the 2022 conference is ‘Building Healthy Communities Through Sport’ and the conference is scheduled for March.

 

That was a brief introduction to what we do.  Look forward to our new monthly feature where we send our new Marketing & Communications Coordinator (aka me) who 100% does not identify as a sporty person, out into the region to try out new sports for the first time.  I will then report back on their difficulty, cost, ease of access and more to show just how low the barrier to getting more active truly is!