The Paddle In The Park Contest is an outdoor advocacy program disguised as a fun contest. A joint effort from Badger Paddles and Portageur.ca, the Paddle In The Park Contest is a chance to find a hidden paddle in a park, somewhere in Ontario. But that’s just a small, incidental aspect of this summer-long event. The contest was conceived as way to re-enforce the idea that being in Nature is truly a rewarding experience – or like what we call being “Out There”. To do this, we listed at least 9 rewards and reasons to spend time in nature then added another: a tangible representation of all those rewards in the form of a handcrafted Badger® canoe paddle and other gear and prizes.
People had a lot of fun following the contest and looking for clues, because when each paddle was found we drew a random winner for a prize package. 2013 was a huge success, with 2014 being even bigger and better with more paddles, and more paddle hiders. In 2015 we opened up the contest to even more outdoor enthusiasts by way of the Paddle Points Contest, where people uploaded camping photos for a chance to win a Nova Craft Canoe and even more gear and prizes.
In 2017, we celebrated our 5th year of the Paddle in the Park campaign, and 2018 marked both Badger’s and Portageur’s 10 year anniversaries, with even more rewarding surprises – all in celebration of nature.
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