OTTAWA, June 10, 2015 - Canada's leaders are playing in the sandbox to build a healthier generation of Canadians. In order to raise awareness about The Sandbox Project, Canadian Members of Parliament, Cabinet Ministers, media personalities, NGO's, families and industry professionals built sandcastles in the World's Largest Sandbox event on Sparks Street in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Many Canadians would be surprised to know how badly we fare when it comes to the health and wellbeing of our children. Canada faces an unprecedented future where our children have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. With a specific focus on injury prevention, mental health, growing healthy bodies and the environment, The Sandbox Project is working hard to counteract this worrying trend and improve child and youth health and wellbeing in Canada. The objective of the World's Largest Sandbox event is to raise awareness of the importance of collaborating and investing in child and youth health issues.
"There's still a lot of work to be done to improve the health of Canada's children and youth," said Christine Hampson, President and CEO of The Sandbox Project. "But the World's Largest Sandbox is an occasion to celebrate the impact of individuals and organizations across Canada who are working together to create meaningful change." In recent days, there has been much to celebrate including national initiatives: National Day of Health and Fitness (June 1); Healthy Me Week (June 1 to 7); Parachute's Cost of Injury in Canada report (June 3), the 2015 YMCA Healthy Kids Report and YMCA Healthy Kids Day (May 28 and June 7); and the release of the all-new ParticipACTION Report Card (June 9).
Christine was joined in the sandbox for a sandcastle building competition by 60 Ottawa elementary school students, representatives of the media, corporate Canada, child and youth health charities, and Parliamentarians including:
- The Hon. Dr. K. Kellie Leitch and other Conservative, NDP, Liberal and Green MPs
- Mental Health Commission of Canada
- Yellow Pages
- Active At School
- CHEO
- TELUS
Event sponsors for the World's Largest Sandbox include Yellow Pages, Goldcorp, the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the AstraZeneca Young Health Program.
Photos of the event are available online through Twitter by following @SandboxCanada and the hashtag #OTTsandbox.
About The Sandbox Project
The vision of The Sandbox Project is to make Canada the healthiest place in the world for children and youth to grow up. It is focused on improving child and youth health outcomes with respect to injury prevention, growing healthy bodies, mental health and the environment.
For further information: Mary-Ellen Rayner, Director, Partnerships & Initiatives, The Sandbox Project, (416) 554-2610, merayner@sandboxproject.ca