Chatham-Kent residents are being incentivized to make the most of the municipality's trails over the last few weeks of summer.
The Municipality of Chatham-Kent along with The Chatham-Kent Trails Council, Ontario Parks and the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority has launched the CK Trail Challenge.
Whether it's cycling, walking, running, skateboarding or rollerblading, residents can log their active transportation and have a chance to win prizes.
Chatham-Kent's active transportation and special events coordinator Genevieve Champagne said the goal is to record what trails people are using and how much the trails are being utilized while also engaging residents.
"At the end of this, I will be posting how far we've walked as a community," she explained.
Champagne said every time a resident engages in active transportation in the municipality, they can fill out a Google Form, which can be found by clicking here.
"If they walk a trail twice a day, they can fill it out twice a day," she explained. "If they walk the trail once a week, they can fill it out once a week. As many times as you walk, just enter the name of the trail, how far you walked, rode your biked or rollerbladed."
Every week, Champagne will be drawing six names from the list of people that logged their trail usage, with a variety of different prize packs up for grabs to be won.
Chatham-Kent currently has over 226 kilometres of recreational trails and pathways, with more planned across the region.
Trail usage in Chatham-Kent has seen a significant boost since the start of the pandemic, with some trails being used by several hundred people a day.
Champagne said she believes that trend will continue, even long after the pandemic is over.
"I think once people got into the mindset and needing that mental break of going out for a walk or enjoying the fresh air, I think they really enjoyed that over the last 18 months and so they'll continue doing it," she said.
The CK Trail Challenge runs until September 4.
