Fitness Leadership Awards

Accepting 2023 Nominations until August 23 at 12pm PST.

BCRPA's Annual Fitness Leadership Awards recognize BCRPA Registered Fitness Leaders who make outstanding contributions to BC's fitness industry - who inspires, informs, and actively models promotion of active and healthy lifestyles.

About the Award

BCRPA's Fitness Professional of the Year award, recognizes a BCRPA Registered Fitness Leader who has demonstrated strength in bringing individuals and communities together, and has made outstanding contributions to fitness leadership in their community by motivating, educating and influencing active and under-active individuals to commit to a physically active lifestyle.

In 2023, the recipient will receive:

Recognition at the Fitness Award Ceremony during BCFit®'23
Complimentary registration to BCFit®'23
Waiving of their next BCRPA registration renewal fees (renewal requirements still need to be met)
A stunning tabletop award for display
Promotion on BCRPA's website and social media channels

Each nominee for the Fitness Professional of the Year Award will be evaluated on the following:

Inspirational teaching and motivational methods to encourage active and under-active individuals to initiate or maintain a physically active lifestyle.
Development of unique/creative programs or services that increase community awareness of the benefits of physical activity.
Support and encouragement of under-served, more diverse, and/or equity-seeking individuals within physical activity.
Significant contribution to professional credibility and promotion of fitness leadership in BC.

Submit a nomination for the Fitness Professional of the Year Award.

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2022 Fitness Professional of the Year – Shannon Whieldon

Shannon Whieldon is a BCRPA Registered Fitness Leader and Supervisor of Fitness Leaders (SFL) who has dedicated the past 40 years to the field of community fitness and health promotion. She holds Specialities in Older Adult Fitness, Personal Training, Weight Training and Group Fitness and is deeply committed to making fitness education accessible and inclusive.

Shannon’s fitness career began as an Industrial First Aid Attendant and a Fitness Instructor in the early 1980s. Soon after, she added skydiving as a unique form of exercise and became a volunteer Skydiving Safety Officer to support first-time jump students. She went on to become a rigger and jump master, jumping into Vanier Park in Vancouver as part of Expo86, opening the Abbotsford Airshow with a red and white parachute and Canadian flag, and later securing a bronze medal for Canada in the 1988 World ParaSki Championships in Damüls, Austria.

Shannon is a life-long learner who has supported people of all ages through fitness education and physical activity. During her 27-year career as a nurse in acute care, Shannon set up a back-care program in her unit to support physicians and nurses at the end of their 12-hour shifts. She would then check in on elderly home-bound clients on her way home each night to support them to do the same. She later supported her own son using nutrition and exercise to help him thrive through 8 years of chemotherapy and 2.5 years of restorative leg surgery.

Shannon is known by students, clients, and colleagues past and present to be extremely positive, supportive and creative.

Read the complete media release here.