Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces support for the Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie

May 14, 2010

ST-FÉLICIEN, Quebec - Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that the Government of Canada will support the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie.  The Prime Minister was accompanied by Denis Lebel, Minister of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec), and Pierre Lavoie, Founding Chairman of the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie.
 
“Our Government is extremely proud to support the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie,” said the Prime Minister.  “Pierre Lavoie’s initiatives encourage our youth and Canadians of all ages to become more active and to eat better.  On behalf of the Government of Canada, I congratulate Mr. Lavoie on his dedication to youth and wish the Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie a long and fruitful existence.”
 
The Grand défi, which was founded in 2008 by Pierre Lavoie, is a creative health promotion program featuring physical and educational activities taking place throughout the province of Quebec.  Its main objective is to motivate children between the ages of 6 and 12 to stay healthy by eating the right foods and getting plenty of exercise.

This year’s Grand défi Pierre Lavoie consists of three main activities:

• Two “caravans” (mobile exercise and education facilities) visiting registered schools in the Province of Quebec to teach young people exercise and basic concepts about healthy eating.
• Hundreds of elementary schools in the Province of Quebec competing to be the most physically active using a system of 15-minute exercise units.  This year a number of schools in British Columbia and France are also participating.
• 150 teams cycling one thousand kilometres in two days from La Baie to Montreal.

The Government of Canada is the single largest contributor to sport in Canada and supports participation and excellence from the playground to the podium across the country.
 


Backgrounder

Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie

In 1999, Pierre Lavoie launched the first Défi Pierre Lavoie in his native region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean in order to raise awareness of lactic acidosis — the illness that claimed two of his children — and raise funds for research.  To this end, he cycled over 650 kilometres in 24 hours by himself. Pierre repeated the experience in 2000, 2002 and 2005.

In 2005, Mr. Lavoie partnered with schools in Quebec to create a “Fais ton kilomètre avec Pierre” activity, which saw close to 7,000 young people join him during his ride.  The initiative also saw young people from 40 elementary schools commit to doing three 15-minute sessions of physical activity per week for a month as part of this initiative.  The results were impressive: 6,300 young people accumulated 235,000 15-minute periods of physical activity.

In November 2008, Go, le Grand défi, a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage youth to adopt healthy life habits, launched the 2009 Grand défi Pierre Lavoie.  It became the largest health- and physical activity-related event to ever be organized in the Province of Quebec.  The organization aims to mobilize Quebec schools to support physical activity and healthy eating among children aged 6 to 12 years.

To date, the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie has raised $650,000 in four campaigns for lactic acidosis research.  Researchers later discovered the gene responsible for this illness.

In 2010, the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie, with the support of 46 partners from the public and private sector, plans to visit every elementary school in the province to encourage children to be more active (“Bougez plus”) and eat better (“Mangez mieux”).  Twenty-five elementary schools from British Columbia will also participate in the 2010 event.  Schools from Narbonne, France, will join the Quebec initiative.

The Grand défi Pierre Lavoie has four key elements:

• The Grand Tour, which involves two caravans (mobile exercise and education facilities) going to registered schools in the Province of Quebec.  These units accommodate 30 students at a time, allowing them to exercise and to learn some basic concepts regarding healthy eating.
• The Great Competition in schools, aimed at rewarding the young people who make the strongest commitment to becoming more physically active.  All elementary schools across Quebec may enter the competition.  Young people and their families must do 15-minute sessions of physical activity (or energy cube), 7 days a week for a month.  Each session earns them one point.  The more active the students are, the more points they accumulate.  While 235,000 energy cubes were accumulated back in 2005, close to 17 million were accumulated in 2009.  Go, le Grand défi expects that children will earn up to 40 million energy cubes in 2010.
• Some 5,000 young people from the winning schools will be rewarded with a two-day celebration in Montreal.
• Their arrival will coincide with the final leg of the 1,000-kilometre cycling event, from June 18 to 20 from La Baie to Montreal which must take place within 60 hours.  The aim of this activity is to promote the importance of adopting healthy life habits and to raise funds for medical research for select diseases through the Go Foundation.  Up to 750 cyclists from 150 teams will ride with Mr. Lavoie.  The event will come through Gatineau on the evening of June 19 and Ottawa on the morning of June 20.

The Government of Canada is providing funding of up to $500,000 per year from 2010 to 2012 for the Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie.



Backgrounder

Pierre Lavoie

Pierre Lavoie has participated in eight Hawaii Ironman Championships, winning three times in his age category.  He will be attempting to win the title for the fourth time in 2010.

Mr. Lavoie is Founding Chairman of the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie.  He is also President of the Association de l’acidose lactique, spokesman for the Corporation de recherches et d'actions sur les maladies héréditaires (CORAMH) and Founder of the Club cycliste acidose lactique for 10- to 17-year-olds.

He has received numerous awards, such as Personality of the year (Humanism, Courage and Accomplishment category) at the La Presse Excellence Gala (2005), a Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada (2005) and Knight of the Ordre national du Québec (2006).

Since 2005, Mr. Lavoie has been a motivational speaker at conferences across the country.

Mr. Lavoie resides with his wife Lynne Routhier and two children in La Baie, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.