#TakeItToThePark with Coca-Cola’s America Is Your Park Campaign {$20 Subway Gift Card Giveaway}

 

This is a sponsored post on behalf of SheSpeaks and Coca-Cola

What are your favorite aspects about the neighborhood in which you live? The style of the houses? The proximity to stores? The super-friendly neighbors?

While I have long loved quite a bit about where we live, one of the reasons that has remained a positive over the years is the number of parks within walking distance. Smaller neighborhood parks; larger, multi-playground options at my daughters' elementary school; new, modern parks in new developments... they're all right here!

One location that has remained a constant favorite over the years is a park that has just about every attribute we could want all in one place: TONS of equipment and slides to play on, swings, a huge sandbox, a blacktop for bouncing balls, coloring with chalk or riding on roller skates, shade to relax in, picnic tables to eat at, and even a large pond with a boardwalk for plenty of nature walks and wildlife exploration.

Is this the very best park in America? Of course we might be a bit biased, but it does get my vote!

That's right, Coca-Cola is on the hunt for America’s Favorite Park as part of the fourth-annual America Is Your Park Campaign and at stake is up to $100,000 in recreation grants to be used for park improvements!

The challenge is simple: 'Take It To The Park,'' get active and vote to help your favorite park win a grant. Being active is not only fun, it is an important part of a healthy lifestyle... and what better place to get moving this summer than in the park!

This summer, Coca-Cola has even helped make this a little bit easier and a lot more fun with fitness-inspired events and activities taking place around the country — they set a goal to inspire as many as 3 million people to have fun and get active in parks, on beaches, in gyms and recreation centers around the country!

As a part of this campaign, there are many ways you can vote for your favorite park but it starts with getting active. Turn your favorite fitness activities into votes for national state and local parks this summer by checking in on Foursquare, logging your daily activities on MapMyFitness or clicking to vote online.

The park with the most votes will win a $100,000 recreation grant from Coca-Cola and the title of America's Favorite Park. Second- and third-place parks will win $50,000 and $25,000 grants, respectively. Another $15,000 grant will be awarded, at random, to a lucky park that comes in 4th to 25th on the leader board!

Talk about an incentive to get moving! We love heading to our favorite park anyway, but when we received a package of items making it perfect to get active and enjoy a tasty picnic, we were ready to head out the door right away.

The biggest question was where to even begin. Do we play catch with our new balls, toss around the Coca-Cola flying ring, show off Mom's old school skills with the jump rope or head to Subway for our delicious sandwiches?

As usual, hunger won out... so much so that we didn't even make it to the park before chowing down on our Subway lunch. Yum!

But the girls were still extremely excited to head to the park, so it wasn't long before we were there hanging out enjoying the sunshine and all sorts of ways to be active!

From playing on the equipment...

...to tossing around the Coca-Cola flying ring and beach ball (and playing a pseudo-volleyball game with it)...

...to practicing our jump rope and paddle ball skills...

...to bouncing the rubber balls and shooting some hoops.

I'm not sure which one of us was the most shocked that this shot of Big Sister E's actually went in!

Is there anything better than a gorgeous afternoon spent playing at the park?

We finished off our visit by checking out the pond and wildlife on the boardwalk, playing fetch with a friendly couple and their even friendlier dog, and kicking back in the shade before finally packing up and heading home. I'm telling you, best park in America!

Are you ready to get moving, vote daily and Take It To The Park? Head over to Coke.com/Parks to find out more (the full contest rules and FAQs can be found here) and connect with other park enthusiasts on Twitter at #TakeItToThePark.

Plus, thanks to the generosity of Coca-Cola, one person will be prepared to get outside and get active with their family for a day of fun, because...

One lucky person will win a
Coca-Cola beach ball and a $20 Subway gift card!

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A big thank you to Coca-Cola for providing a Subway gift card and outdoor items for me as well as a $20 Subway gift card and a Coca-Cola beach ball for one lucky giveaway winner. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.