Colin Harris loves to be outdoors.
He also cares deeply that children today spend a lot more time with their eyeballs fixed on computer screens than they do connecting with the natural environment, which is often no further than their backyards.
So earlier this month, Harris launched a contest designed to marry kids’ attachment to their electronic devices with the wonders and excitement of spending time outdoors.
Partnered with Mountain Equipment Co-op and the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, the Take Me Outside Student Video Contest is open to students from kindergarten to Grade 12 from schools across Canada. Students are encouraged to create a video showcasing their favourite outdoor places, explaining why they love those places and what sorts of activities they engage in to explore and enjoy the outdoors anywhere in Canada.
The style of the video is wide open – comedy, montage, documentary, drama or even a student-level adventure in the genre of the “extreme” films featured every year at the BMFF. The films should be no longer than seven minutes.
The contest is divided into two categories, one for students from kindergarten to Grade 6, the other for those in Grades 7-12. The rules for the younger group request that the ideas be the students’, but parents/teachers are permitted to assist with filming and editing, providing they are not professionals in the filmmaking field.
Older students must plan and execute all aspects of their film project themselves, either as individuals or working with other students, without any adults helping. With either category, the final submission must be made in the name of just one student. Prizes include tents, sleeping bags and packs donated by MEC. As well, some of the finalists will be screened at the 2013 BMFF.
The aim of the project, Harris said, is to inspire school kids by inviting them to share the places and activities that inspire them to spend time outdoors.
“Every year we see all these amazing films at the Banff Mountain Film Festival of athletes doing extreme trips,” Harris said. “But if we ask why they do what they do, the thing they have in common is their love for being outside. And that love needs to get started when kids are young.”
As people around the world become more and more entrenched in sedentary lives spending increasing amounts of time in front of computer screens, health problems such as obesity are on the rise among all ages.
“We adults are poor examples,” Harris said. “Our culture of technology is not going away. And right now we have a huge imbalance.”
That imbalance, he suggested, can be compared to the film Supersize Me, in which the filmmaker ate only McDonalds’ fast food three meals a day for an entire month. Fast food, Harris suggested, isn’t such a bad thing if it’s only consumed as a treat once in a while, balanced with a healthy, nutritious diet. By the same principal, it’s not healthy for anyone to spend day after day indoors playing with electronic devices.
“Whether we get out kicks from video games or TV, it’s all good,” Harris said. “We all need to have fun. We just need to balance that fun with having fun outdoors.”
More and more, studies show that a person’s stress level decreases significantly with a simple walk in a park.
For his part, this video contest represents just one more step in Harris’ ongoing efforts to inspire young Canadians to appreciate spending time in Canada’s immense natural environment.
A Canmore resident for the past year, Harris is director of Take me Outside, a non-profit organization he created that is committed to educating and creating awareness with Canadians about their connection to nature and their time spent outside.
Students throughout the Bow Valley are being encouraged to participate in the video contest by creating videos that show, “a little taste of where they live in the country and what they like to do outside.”
Deadline for entries is July 31. For more guidelines and more information, visit takemeoutside.ca/contest
