Looking For Sports Equipment? The Library Has You Covered

Did you know having a library membership can help you be more active? That's right, the library loans more than books these days. Over the past couple of years, the library has been building a collection of loanable sport and recreation equipment that anyone with a library card can borrow.

If you have picked up your #YQLChallenge Passport, you may have noticed icons beside many of the 150 activities, that indicate the library has loanable equipment for that activity. Let say, for example, you and a group of friends want to get together to check some activities off your passport, and you decide lawn darts looks like fun. If you don't have a set of lawn darts, you can head down to the Lethbridge Public Library to check out a set from their equipment collection. If you want to check to see what's available, and not already loaned out, you can do that from home by visiting the library's website www.lethlib.ca, filling in the search box at the top with what you are looking for, followed by 'equipment', and it will tell you if the item is available, and which branch you can get it from. There is equipment at both the Main Branch downtown, the Crossing Branch in West Lethbridge, as well as the Bookmobile.

If you don't have a library card, or yours is up for renewal, the library has generously donated coupons to the Lethbridge Sport Council to give away to anyone registered for #YQLChallenge, for $5 off any new membership or any membership renewal. This makes some memberships FREE, depending on the type of membership you are getting. To get your coupon, email Tanya at [email protected]

In case you are wondering exactly what kind of equipment you can borrow from the library, here's a list of which activities on the #YQLChallenge Passport you can do with borrowed equipment: badminton, baseball, softball, basketball, beach volleyball, bocce, bowling, cricket, croquet, disc golf, double dutch, flag football, frisbee, giant snakes and ladders, giant tic-tac-toe, hopscotch, jump rope and skipping, lacrosse, lawn darts, pickle ball, snow shoeing, soccer, squash and racquetball, tennis, and the washer game! Stay tuned throughout 2017, as they are always adding to the collection, and the Lethbridge Sport Council will keep #YQLChallenge participants up to date on new additions to the collection.

If you want to get active, we encourage you to visit our website www.lethbridge2017.ca (sorry, website no longer available) to learn more about 'Lethbridge2017: Get Active Through Sport'. There really is something for everyone, no matter your age, fitness level or goals. Lethbridge 2017: Get Active Through Sport is an initiate from the Lethbridge Sport Council. Families, groups, teams and individuals can sign up for #YQLChallenge, which encourages participants to do 150 activities from a list that has been developed especially for Lethbridge! Anyone can sign up to try 52 sports in 52 weeks at the sport sessions we organize. You can also find and attend sport events you’ve never seen before and CHEER ON by checking our sport event calendar, or be part of our Volunteer Hour Tracker to lend a hand to a sport event or organization! We invite you to register online - recruit friends, involve your family, teammates or co-workers - and engage on social media using #Lethbridge2017. Full details can be found at www.lethbridge2017.ca (sorry, website no longer available)

- Tanya Whipple

Originally published in the Lethbridge Herald on February 24th, 2017