BANFF – Our need to spend time outdoors, over the use of screens and devices while keeping connected online, has pushed a Banff author and organizer to begin a non-profit and publish a memoir of his experience running cross-country to promote outdoor engagement among school-age youth.
Collin Harris, the recreation initiatives coordinator with the Town of Banff and founder and executive director of Take Me Outside (TMO), is committed to raising awareness and facilitating action on nature connection and outdoor learning in schools across Canada.
His book, Take Me Outside: Running Across the Canadian Landscape That Shapes Us, is set to be released by Rocky Mountain Books at the end of the month.
“The book tells the story of running across the country and then it ties in some of the work TMO is doing, but it also really tries to ask the question of our connection with this land,” said Harris.
“I think this common ground of the land we live on and the time that we spend outside shapes who we are, not only as individuals, but as Canadians.”
In promoting TMO, Harris chose to execute a life long goal to run across Canada while engaging with schools, beginning in Jan. 2011 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and ending in Victoria, B.C. He was inspired in his youth by Terry Fox and the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics torch relay.
“As I got older, the seed was planted that I wanted to run across the country. Finally, in my thirties, I decided I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to tie in a cause for this,” said Harris.
“We started mid-January in Newfoundland, which maybe wasn't the brightest decision in terms of starting in winter, but we wanted to visit as many schools as possible.”
Harris ran 7,600 kilometres – equivalent to 181 marathons – to achieve his goal.
For the first five months of his journey, Harris had a support driver and what he described as a “lemon of an RV that kept having issues.
“I enjoy running, but I wouldn't say I was a great runner, [it was] more of the determination and perseverance in wanting to do this.
“The routine was running 20 to 25 kilometres in the morning, finding the RV parked along the side of the Trans-Canada Highway, having some lunch and then heading back out in the afternoon to do another 20 to 25 kilometres.”
After five months on the road together, Harris’ support driver had to return to Nova Scotia. To continue, he would run 40 to 50 kilometres and then hitchhike back to his RV. Harris did this for five weeks, navigating his way through northern Ontario.
Harris visited more than 80 schools to engage with roughly 20,000 students about the importance of spending time outside learning, playing, and exploring in the Canadian landscape.
During his visits, it was clear students were already aware of the effects smartphones and devices can have on our bodies.
“They had all the right answers, and so do adults. Students were saying we need more vitamin D; [they] were saying ‘my eyes hurt if I stare at a computer screen too much’; they talked about sitting still and how that's not good for your body.”
It has been well documented in the past decade that time in front of devices and screens does carry negative effects on physical, mental, and emotional health while connecting us to services and media platforms.
“The average iPhone user is spending between three to four hours a day looking at their phone,” said Harris. “Over the course of an adult life, that's the equivalent of 10 years potentially looking at your phone.
“These apps on our phones are built to sort of keep us engaged, to keep us attached to our phones. If we as adults have difficulty removing ourselves from our phones, imagine what it's like for kids.”
Dozens of schools committed to TMO challenges promoted online. Activities vary and are applicable to students from kindergarten to middle school-age and are meant to engage the senses.
Activities with Bow Valley students included having them find a spot outdoors to sit and sketch a “sound map” of the area; another activity was mapping out a small quadrat of land and observing the species of plants and animals at their feet.
All of TMO’s programming and challenges are incorporated into students' regular school days, so they aren’t extracurricular.
TMO’s July 2020 impact report noted more than 5,300 teachers participated in a TMO event or campaign that year and over 302,000 students and learners participated in its initiatives.
Educators committed to spending at least one hour a week outside with their classes throughout the school year. Time spent outside took many forms such as class time, extended recess, picnic lunches, and field trips.
“In the midst of this pandemic hitting us hard, [getting outside] was exactly what we all needed. The outdoors, fresh air, young creative minds, and fun. … I will definitely be making the outdoors more of a priority in my everyday teaching,” said a Saskatchewan educator in the report.
Harris said he’s not against the use of devices and screens, but rather mitigating our use of them to consider our own well-being.
“TMO isn't trying to pit screen time versus time outside. It's just about finding balance," he said.
“Right now there's a huge imbalance of the amount of time that kids spend in front of a screen compared to the amount of time that they spend outside.”
A 2018 report by Nature Canada found 87 per cent of pre-school children and 85 per cent of school-aged children do not meet the guidelines for adequate sleep, physical activity and screen time.
Students in Grade 7 to 12 are spending up to seven hours a day on screens, more than three-and-a-half times the recommended limit of two hours per day.
The report concluded time spent in nature and being active outdoors is beneficial to children’s health and overall well-being, improving their resiliency, academic performance and social skills.
Many respondents included in the TMO report noted that students became better self-regulators, more engaged in their learning, and more immersed in the school community.
During the pandemic and transition to remote learning, many educators who had developed routines with their classes surrounding outdoor learning had high engagement in outdoor learning lessons throughout remote delivery.
Harris recommends taking small habits to shift toward a healthier lifestyle, such as not keeping your phone at your bedside, which might cause you to look over messages and media in the first moments of your day.
Rather, prioritize spending time outdoors at the beginning of your day, even if for only a walk to work or a bike ride.
“Whatever you do outside, you never come back and home and regret that walk or that hike or that bike ride. You're energized and refreshed,” Harris said.
Take Me Outside: Running Across the Canadian Landscape That Shapes Us is available for purchase as of April 27 through Rocky Mountain Books.
Harris gives thanks to the Banff Centre's Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives and staff that supported him during his writing process.
Signed copies are available at Café Books in-store and through online ordering.
