Missouri Workplace Wellness Challenge Wrap-up!

Our Healthy Business, Healthy Community Workplace Wellness Challenge has recently come to an end in Missouri, and we’re celebrating its success! The Wellness Challenge inspired many of our small business participants to commit to healthier habits, like eating right and exercising, all while participating in fun activities and interacting with other local businesses.

If you haven’t followed along with us during the Wellness Challenge, read on below for a recap!

Over the course of eight weeks, 25 small businesses in southwest Missouri competed against 15 businesses in the St. Louis region by engaging in healthy activities and recording them through for free through Wellable, a new fitness and nutrition-tracking program. In total, we had nearly 200 small business owners and employees participate in the Wellness Challenge.  

We’re very excited to announce the winner of the Wellness Challenge is…Southwest Missouri!

Top participating businesses:

  • Joplin – Carpe Diem Management
  • Springfield – Springfield MBCH Children and Family Ministries
  • St. Louis – St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce

Top individual participants:

  1. Mary Perez, St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce 
  2. Danny Perches, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce
  3. Kara Nunez, Benefit Management, Inc. (Joplin)

Best Story Winner: Kara Nunez of Benefit Management, Inc.

In addition to helping Missouri small businesses improve their health and overall wellness, the Wellness Challenge provided them with unique networking opportunities. At our Challenge events, participants had the chance to share their experiences and learn about wellness programs, while partaking in fun and healthy activities. We bowled, rock climbed and hula-hooped, but most of all, we walked! In total, participants walked a whopping 176,805 miles throughout the Wellness Challenge!

And to reward them for their hard work, all of our participants received special prizes provided by local sponsors. Check out a few of them below:

  • The Springfield Greene County Park Board generously donated day passes to the Chesterfield Family Center for every Springfield participant.
  • The Joplin Family YMCA provided free one-month memberships for all Joplin participants, in addition to sponsoring free workout Wednesdays for them throughout the Wellness Challenge.
  • In St. Louis, Tiny Little Monster created commemorative Wellness Challenge coolie cups and t-shirts.
  • Jenny Craig, one of our platinum sponsors, donated gift bags for each person on the Southwest team, as well as prizes for raffles we held in Springfield and Joplin.

You can check out some photos from the Wellness Challenge on our Facebook page, or follow the action on social media using the hashtag #healthysmallbiz!

And while the Wellness Challenge is over, it’s not too late for you to start your own workplace wellness program! Our Wellness Resource Portal has a comprehensive toolkit and how to guides, educational events, and plenty of other resources to make it simple and inexpensive to start a program at your small business.

 

Special thank you to our sponsors: 

Platinum level: Missouri Foundation for Health and Jenny Craig
Gold level: Joplin Family YMCA and Albrecht Family Foundation
Silver level: Freeman Health Systems, Tiny Little Monster, Springfield-Greene County Park Board, Springfield Hypnosis and St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce
Bronze level: Missouri Council for Activity and Nutrition/University of Missouri Extension, Apollo Fit and Water Technology of the Ozarks

Supporting sponsors: Lavender Falls Farm, Valentus, Young Living, Fleet Feet Sports Springfield, LuLaRoe, Countryside in the City, Innovations Salon, Mary Kay, Linda’s Flowers, Linde Esthetics, Ozark Athletic, 4th Street Bowl, Bicycle Specialist, Wilson Films, Price Cutter, Sunshine Lanes and Enterprise Park Lanes

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