Aroostook County Action Program

2023 DOWNHILL 24 OUTDOOR FUND GRANTEE

This grant allowed for the purchase of 10 sets of snowshoes and travel bags to help ensure ease of delivery throughout the county. This was the first step in building a stainable plan for outdoor winter recreation offerings and were added to our lending library resource, which is a lending system for all ACAP physical activity and nutrition resources available to children, families, and organized groups including early childhood education sites.

The local purchase from Bike Board and Ski was also published in our Aroostook County Action Program Weekly Digest distributed across Aroostook County. The resource shares awareness and promotion which contains a QR code to link to the request form. A promotional ACAP Today recording also took place for more awareness of the snowshoes available. This strategy helped us to reach approximately 6,000 community patrons who potentially could help make connections for the promotion of this physical activity opportunity.

Teachers and staff were also made aware of the opportunity here at our Aroostook County Action Program Early Childhood Education sites through Ten Minute Tuesday staff meeting. Due to the lack of snow, and trails being closed most of the winter, all outdoor snow activities were much less usual.

This was a challenging season for winter recreation throughout the region that impacted ability to use the equipment and had a negative effect on the economy. We are expecting in future winters, with a successful snowfall here in Northern Maine, we will see much more use of the equipment enabling kids to get outside for snowshoeing and be more active. We have used the time to educate the community about the resource and are developing a plan for next season and will continue to find new ways to promote, provide outreach and awareness strategies as the season continues and in future years.