Several city employees took to the icy river water as part of Winter Challenge 2014 last week.
Image Credit: YouTube
March 24, 2014 - 10:33 AM
KAMLOOPS - When city employees were told to go jump in a lake, they did it to show their support for accessibility in Kamloops as part of Winter Challenge 2014.
Employees took the plunge in the South Thompson River after being nominated on the web.
The Winter Challenge is an online video challenge where people dunk their entire body in ice cold water, post the video online and nominate someone else to do the same. This is the latest in a series of online video challenge games that includes the drinking game and the random act of kindness versions of neknomination.
In this case Ben Chobater was called out as part of the Many in Motion campaign, an accessibility awareness campaign that started a couple years ago in Kamloops. Chobater asked his peers to join him and on the first day of spring seven city employees-Chobater, Hannah Coulter, Shannon Hardman, Carmin Mazzotta, Alex de Chantal, Julien Peron and Maren Luciani-lined up along the river at Pioneer Park.
“It was a fun thing to do, right in the midst of the campaign,” Chobater says, adding it was, “reasonably painless.”
After introducing themselves in the video the group strips down and runs into the water, staying in just long enough to get wet head to toe and let out a few shouts, and then quickly runs out, many straight to waiting warm cars. The warm wind that day meant the shock didn't fully hit them until a few minutes later, Chobater says, but they are already planning how they might be able to tie something like this is to the campaign again next year.
It is the last week of the Many in Motion campaign, which sees patrons of the Tournament Capital Centre and Westsyde Pool mark a board for every 250 m swam and every kilometre on the track during March. Chobater says they may look at expanding the program to run groups in the future but for now are happy with the 'good message' the campaign gives.
“It's a good message around accessibility,” Chobater says. “Make it more accessible for more people.”
Credit: Ben Chobater
Team Many In Motion and Winter Challenge 2014
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infotelnews.ca or call 250-819-3723, or Marshall Jones at mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
-This story was updated at 11:15 a.m., March 24, 2014 to correct spelling of a name.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014