There is no denying technology has become a huge part of our lives, when we are not on our laptops, we are on our phones and sitting in front of the TV. According to one study the average person spends eight hours a day in front of a screen and only minutes outdoors.
However spending time outdoors has numerous benefits. Getting fresh air, a little exercise and some vitamin D can work wonders for ones mental and physical health.
In an effort to get students outside, The Outdoor Foundation developed the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge. They initially launched a pilot program last year, with 10 schools and nearly 9,000 participants. According to Stasia Raines, the director of marketing and communications at The Outdoor Foundation, they logged over 45,000 activities.
“What was most exciting to us was our post challenge, follow-up survey,” said Raines. “The surveys were really incredible. We asked if the participants felt the challenge changed the amount they engaged in the outdoors and 87 percent said they would continue to engage in the outdoors and that the challenge drastically changed the amount they were outside.”
Since the pilot program was such as hit, they decided to launch the challenge again this year. Starting September 6 through October 17, 57 college and universities from across the country will go head-to-head to win the title of National Outdoor Champion. The individual logging the most activities will win Outsider of the Year, and one student at each of the 57 schools will win the title of Most Outdoorsy.
“We describe it as Mother Nature meets March Madness-style competition,” explained Raines. “Each school community – students, faculty, staff, alumni and others who live in the community – log the activities they do outside for the six weeks. The main point is engaging in the outdoors in fun and meaningful ways.”
All college and universities across the nation are welcome to participate. While this years challenge is already underway, Raines explained in the spring they will send out an open call for all schools to participate in the 2016 challenge.
“This year, the first 50 schools to sign up we were able to give funding to,” added Raines. “We gave $1,000 to each of the schools just to help get the program off the ground. We hope to do the same thing next year with the idea that we fund some of these schools to help them begin.”
According to Raines, the ultimate goal is to grow the challenge to 500 schools. “We hope the Campus Challenge will bring recreation and outdoor engagement more front of mind for some of these campuses that don’t necessarily have an outdoor culture,” she said. “We want to encourage a movement toward outdoor recreation and also welcome less tradition demographics into the challenge, with the hope of having them engage in outdoor recreation in a way that is fun and meaningful to them.”
