Willis is the woman behind the mobile app History Check that combines history, vacation planning, searching for local amenities and more. For the past several months she has been building the content and streamlining the app and now she is ready to bring a contest to schools across the province.
Wanting to replace “Green Guy,” as Willis refers to the current generic avatar in the app, she has prizes lined up for nine winners and is working on getting regional support from various chambers of commerce. “ING-ON” is the avatar's official name and refers to everything you can do in Alberta; camping, hiking, boating, fishing and so on. Willis refers to it as “getting your ING-ON,” hence the name.
“We might end up with a beaver and snowshoes or water skiing or a golfing grandpa who knows,” she said.
Willis is reaching out province-wide to schools with a contest run date of April 1 to May 31. All participants will have to sign a waiver allowing their local chamber of commerce or tourism board the right to use the winning ING-ON as well as on History Check.
“A character based on Alberta experience, history, culture and animals,” Willis explained. “That’s what we’re asking the students to create.”
The result would be allowing the app users the ability to choose one of the winning submissions as their personal ING-ON.
So far Willis has secured nine family Experience Alberta History passes allowing the winner to choose from 19 different locations including the Brooks Aqueduct, Remington Carriage Museum, Royal Tyrrell Museum and Victoria Settlement. The passes were donated by the Historic Resources Management office of the provincial government.
Willis adds she is still looking for other sponsors, “If people want to give us (prizes) for random draws or a specific category; maybe a golf course wants to give us a family golfing pass.”
Always one to collaborate Willis has approached chambers to help get the word out. Each chamber will sponsor a pizza party. Students can enter and whoever gets the most vote in the mini contest between May 1 and 15 will win the party for their class. It gives the chance for chambers to engage with up and coming young entrepreneurs.
The Athabasca and District Chamber of Commerce and the Pigeon Lake Chamber have already signed up as partners with History Check for the contests.
You can learn more about Alberta’s history by following History Check on social media where Willis has a collaboration with Belt Drive Betty Media and the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association to produce a daily short video and contest.
“It’s your daily dose of Alberta historical trivia,” Willis added. “Let's find out how much Alberta history you really know.”
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @HLSox
