Sponsor Spotlight: Canadian Tire Jumpstart
Originally printed in Sport Quarterly, December 2011
Sometimes a partnership just makes sense. Such is the case with Canadian Tire Jumpstart and Sport Nova Scotia’s KidSport™ program.
Since its inception in 2005, Canadian Tire Jumpstart has focused on removing barriers that prevent kids from participating in sport and recreation. For its part, KidSport™ Nova Scotia helps families with funding for sport registration, allocating nearly half a million dollars in 2010.
A national initiative, Canadian Tire Jumpstart has a network of over 300 local chapters from coast-tocoast. Locally, they partner with over 1,000 organizations and have helped more than 370,000 kids become active in six short years.
“Our mandate is to help underprivileged kids play sports and recreation,” states Charles Woodford, Regional Manager for Atlantic Canada for Jumpstart. “We use organizations such as the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters and KidSport™ to find those kids and help us disperse our funding. For us, (the partnership with Sport Nova Scotia) is a perfect fit.”
With Canadian Tire Jumpstart, the emphasis is on getting kids active, regardless of whether it’s organized sport or recreation. The goal is to use grassroots sport to teach children and equip them for their life ahead.
“We’re not trying to create the next Gretzky, and we’re not worried about competitiveness,” Woodford says. “The major thing is to help kids get fit and socialize with their peers.”
KidSport™ is only one of the ways that Canadian Tire Jumpstart is partnering with the community. For example, the organization is preparing to launch a pair of programs at new HRM facilities. Canadian Tire Jumpstart is a major partner of HRM Kids, and they are creating a new skate program for the Halifax oval called Canadian Tire Jumpstart I Love to Skate. In January, they will also launch the I Love to Swim program at the Canada Games Centre.
For Woodford, this is only the beginning for the six-year-old organization.
“Right now we’re a $12 million charity nationally, and in the next few years we expect to be $20 million,” he says. “I see nothing but good things happening with that money, being able to reach more kids and develop more programs within HRM.”