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Sports Walls
Active kids do better in life
The Problem!
Kids don't have free access to play their favourite sports close to home. So instead they are in front of the computer screen, playing video games, eating junk food, watching tv and getting fat. Canadian kids for the 5th year in a row failed the Healthy Kids Canada Report Card for physical activity levels (Link)
The economic burden of obesity is estimated to be between 4.6 billion to 7.1 billion in Canada 2008. (Link)
Our goal is to establish sports walls on every elementary school in Ontario and eventually all of Canada. Having sports walls freely available is the first step to getting our kids away from the screens and switching to playing sports outside. On average, kids are in school from 8am to 3:30pm, Monday to Friday. Having their favourite sports available to them before, during or after school would do wonders for their health, lifestyle, sports/team, skills, and even friendships.
With schools in every community, anyone will be able to play their favourite sports whenever they like.
What’s a Sports Wall?
Sports Walls are realistic sport nets painted on the outdoor walls and a sport court on the surrounding ground area of schools in order to resemble the real thing. It turns plain school walls into a sports zone where anyone can come play their favourite sports. Imagine being able to play basketball, volleyball, tennis as well as many other sports outside and only need a ball and friends to play!
How Did It All Start?
I used to play hockey with my friends in elementary school. Here’s the catch: I would have to carry my 65 pound net all the way to school from my house and back again just to be able to play my favourite sport for a few hours. After 2 weeks of playing hockey, no one wanted to help me carry that net back, which is understandable. Carrying such a heavy net after a few hours of hockey was a burden but without it, we wouldn’t be able to play.
This is where I came up with my idea. The only thing a net provides is a way to tell who scored a goal. I took this idea and boiled it down to drawing chalk nets on the school wall. It worked! However, this was just a temporary fix because after a couple days, some or all of the lines would wear off. This is when I got my second idea: Why not paint different sports courts on school walls? It’s a low cost for high value, little to no maintenance, permanent solution to my problem.
We Build It, They'll Come and Play!
