Youth Run Club ambassadors send a clear message where it's needed

In 2015, we launched the AMA YRC Ambassador program with two outstanding athletes and role models: Canadian Olympic Triathlete, Paula Findlay, and five-time Olympic Race Walker, Tim Berrett.

Once an athlete, always an athlete: Olympic Triathlete, Paula Findlay

If you were to ask 25-year-old Paula Findlay’s mom, she’d probably say Paula was born running, or at the very least, born moving.

As an AMA/Ever Active Schools YRC ambassador and Olympic triathlete, Paula “can’t remember not being involved in sports.”

Paula played soccer, danced (ballet, jazz and tap) for 15 years, started swimming competitively when she was 11-years-old, took up track and field at the age of 14 and began her triathlete career when she was 16. She grew up in Edmonton, skiing and skating through the long winters with her very active family.

“My parents were involved in sports and as kids we were always encouraged to play sports and games, and just be active. Our family has always been on the go and still is!” says Paula.

The YRC’s ambassador program seeks to enlist the support and advocacy of local athletic role models and mentors, who, with their actions and beliefs, champion youth activity. Last fall, the YRC was very fortunate to acquire Paula as a program ambassador. With her childhood and youth focus on sports and physical activities, Paula is a natural, credible advocate of youth activity. Her impressive and well-earned accomplishments in the competitive world of women’s triathlon are a huge inspiration to all, particularly to children and youth. Prior to representing Canada in the women’s triathlon at the London 2012 Olympics, Paula won five world triathlon series events in 2010-11.

“It had never really been a goal of mine, to go to the Olympics,” says Paula. “But when I started competing in triathlons in 2006, that’s when I started to think it might be a possibility. This is my career, now,” Paula continues. “Training every day, looking after my body and health, performing at a world class level, having sponsors, being a role model … I love being a mentor to children with similar goals and dreams.”

Having just arrived back in Edmonton after almost a year in Australia, training to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, Paula acknowledges the challenges we face staying active outdoors through our (usually) tough Alberta winters.

“It’s REALLY hard to stay active outside when it’s cold! But it can be done, by dressing warmly, in layers… and you can always go indoors for your activity.”

But for Paula, probably the most important factor in encouraging youth to be active is found at home. “I think being in a family and a household that encourages an active lifestyle is vital. My active family is really at the core of my abilities and interests,” says Paula.

Paula was fresh off the plane when the YRC put her to work as an ambassador with a presentation on December 16, 2014 to 300 students at École Bellevue School in Beaumont. The YRC will keep Paula running, but she likes it that way!

Walking the walk … Olympic men’s race walker, Tim Berrett

As an AMA/Ever Active Schools YRC ambassador, 49-year-old Olympic race walker Tim Berrett knows how to walk THE walk – the Olympic race walk that is – and he knows how difficult and painful it can be.

“The first time I did a walking race, I was about 13,” explains Tim, who was born and raised in Tunbridge Wells, England. “I ran cross-country with my school, which also had a tradition of race walking. There was a race coming up that went right past my parent’s front door so I decided to try it. It was painful! My shins hurt for several weeks after,” he says.

Tim finished third in that race and had been bitten by race walking bug. The Olympic bug followed shortly thereafter. He continued developing as a race walker throughout his school and university years, supplementing his fitness and training with cross-country and track running. Tim went on to compete in five successive Olympic Games between 1992 with his last competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Soccer, rugby, cricket, running and race walking: Tim was always active as a child and youth. This habit and pattern of activity and associated good nutrition and health has continued all through adulthood. Tim has been a worthy competitor throughout his life – and is now a board member of Athletics Alberta and Athletics Canada, an athletics program leader at Edmonton’s Westglen Elementary School and YRC ambassador. In all this, Tim sees the benefits of physical activity for children and the value of programs such as the YRC which “give the kids a reason to be active, outside the school curriculum.”

“It’s important for kids to have the opportunity to be active, whether in or outside of school and in an affordable way,” Tim explains.

In addition to the YRC, Tim has been closely involved with AthletiKids, a track and field-based, non-competitive program for K-6 students at Westglen Elementary School for close to nine years. As part of his AthletiKids program at Westglen, Tim has developed the YRC into a fall cross-country running program.

“We also do some other activity initiatives that tie in with the YRC, such as the Westglen Challenge, every spring. We started these runs three years ago,” says Tim. “We challenge the (approximately 290) kids to run/walk 2,000 kilometres collectively, during the last week of May. They can bring their parents and families, as they do their morning (before school) runs and laps around the school field.”

For the past several years, in addition to his work with Athletics Canada and other sports management boards, Tim supports the current coach of Canada’s emerging group of world-class race walkers and through mentoring, works to improve athletic performance. He’s also keenly involved in the development of a race walking program in Canada.

Based on the success of the Westglen AthletiKids/YRC program, Tim is ready to expand the program to other schools.

“There is so much value to physical activity for adults and kids,” Tim states. The teachers of kids who take part in the AthletiKids/YRC programs at Westglen notice that the children who participate in the activities are more attentive in the morning and all through the day.

“These programs get kids active, engaged and feeling good about themselves. With events such as the Westglen Challenge, we involve parents and families and it creates a real sense of community and a good feeling of safety and support,” says Tim.

Please see the video at www.albertadoctors.org/advocating/many-hands/ama-youth-run-club to learn more about the AMA YRC ambassador program.