By Sam Cortes, Communications Coordinator
Directorat de l’activité sportive du Manitoba (DAS) is celebrating 15 years on May 26, 2021. What better way to recognize this significant anniversary than to catch up with Executive Director Chantal Young on what DAS is all about, what quality French programming you and your family can get involved in, and how they hope to safely celebrate when public restrictions allow.
About DAS
“The project just got to a point where it was kind of above and beyond just being a program or project run by an organization, and they saw the potential for it to be its own entity.”
DAS was officially incorporated in 2006. From there, its goal has been clear.
“Our goal is to motivate our members, which is families, communities, individuals, whoever, to just be moving, to be active in French through sport and physical activity.”
Soccer, Curling, Sports Camps & More
If you’re looking for ways to get active and engage in French (once public health orders allow), DAS has lots of programs. For example, the mini soccer program FrancoFUN, a Francophone bonspiel, and various sports clubs, including swimming, skating, futsal, soccer and fencing.
“Really the goal of those was to work on sports initiation programs. Some of them were very aimed towards Newcomers, in the idea of using sport as a way to get involved and be more included in the community,” said Chantal. “It was an idea of introducing different sports to kids and working on the progressive improvement of the fundamental motor skills.”
And depending on what the future environment looks like based on COVID-19, DAS hopes for the return of their annual summer sport day camps and partnering with the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine and Seven Oaks School Division. In the past, they typically visit 14-15 different communities across the province with dozens of kids signing up for the camps.
Virtual Programs
The pandemic has understandably impacted lots of DAS programming, as it has for all group activities, sports and events over the last year.
“We decided to regroup and that in the new year, we would just stick to virtual so we were sure we could go ahead. So, we did do a sports club to keep getting people moving, we did a hip hop sports club. That one went really well,” said Chantal.
For the adults, Chantal said they did a mobility program this year with a physiotherapist and an online resistance band program.
“That’s allowed us to reach some people we normally didn’t from different communities. When we do go into the different communities, especially for programming in French, it’s really important for the rural communities to be served as well.”
They’ve also done some outdoor recreational activities, too.
“I did a few hikes in the fall to encourage people to get out and move when were were allowed to have a few people together,” said Chantal. “It’s just trying to think of new ways in this past year of encouraging people to keep moving.”
The Importance Of French Programming
In the Francophone community, finding fun and inclusive French programming you can do with your family, friends and other members of your community is important and holds a lot of meaning.
“As a French parent, I’m always looking to do as much as I can in French,” said Chantal. “An important part of being able to keep our language is to be able to use it outside of school walls and home. People are looking to get out and do stuff, do activities in French outside of the home, so people are very appreciative of what we can offer and when we can go in and do it in different communities as well.”
15 Year Anniversary
Chantal wants to thank all those who have helped bring DAS to where they are today.
“15 is pretty important for us,” she said. “We want to recognize the people that have participated and that have been involved in the past.”
To celebrate 15 years, they hope to host something later on in the summer or fall, or even next year, when it’s safe to do so.
“We might try and have some sort of a barbeque in a park or something like that, where we can maybe have a few games of pick up soccer, some ultimate, and some little games for kids,” said Chantal. “We’ll probably be pushing it back, maybe even until next spring. We’re going to do a year of 15th anniversary celebration.”
For now, DAS continues to stay connected with you through their website and on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Follow them to stay up to date on their programs and future 15 year celebrations!
