Thirty-four companies from across the state stepped up their game, topping nearly 500 million steps, in the first-ever Arizona Walking Challenge. During the six-week business-to-business competition (Oct. 1-Nov. 11), 2,008 participants walked an average of 41,491 steps each week. The program was designed to encourage employee wellness across Arizona.
Throughout the challenge period, 439,933,031 total steps were walked – which is equivalent to approximately 208,302 miles or nearly eight trips around the world!
Powered by Terryberry, the Arizona Walking Challenge is designed to spur greater attention to wellness in the workplace. Participating organizations ranged from banks and construction companies to insurance agencies and nonprofits such as Make-a-Wish America and the City of Sierra Vista (all winners listed here https://workplacewalkingchallenge.com/arizona/winners/)
“The level of engagement and stories of personal success coming from companies across Arizona over past six weeks have been truly inspiring,” said Mike Byam, Terryberry Managing Partner. “Just as we’ve witnessed in West Michigan, businesses across Arizona really stepped up to the plate and demonstrated their commitment to building and promoting a culture of wellness.”
At an awards presentation held Nov. 16, Byam recognized some special achievements:
- TOP COMPANY STEPPER: Pyramid Technologies, Inc., in Mesa, Ariz. – Employees averaged 73,803 steps per person, per week!
- MOST IMPROVED COMPANY: PayPal, in Chandler, Ariz. – Employees clocked 17,286 more steps per week at the end of the challenge as compared to the beginning.
- COMPANY WITH MOST CREATIVE SOCIAL MEDIA POST: Logan Simpson, in Tempe, Ariz. – for its “Walking Dead” post.
Jenn McTurk, Director, Customer Care and Compliance with Nutranext, in Cottonwood, Ariz., said her team is already looking forward to next year, after turning the company’s building into a simulated walking trail.
Dates for the 2019 Arizona Walking Challenge have been announced and will take place Oct. 7 through Nov. 17, with early-bird enrollment now underway at https://workplacewalkingchallenge.com/arizona.
Byam also cited numerous examples of employees and employers who came together with creative ways to bolster organizational wellness through the Arizona Walking Challenge, including:
- Lunch hours spent walking outside
- Internal team competitions
- Employees walking/marching at their desks versus sitting down
- Walking meetings took the place of a conference room meeting
- Employees setting their alarms an hour earlier to take a walk before leaving for work
- Increased awareness in the value of walking
“This was an incredible homerun for our community and we are beyond excited to bring the Arizona Walking Challenge back next year,” Byam said.
Terryberry has been part of the greater Phoenix business community since 1981 and currently serves more than 300 organizations across the state including Leslie’s Pool Supplies, CopperPoint Insurance Companies and the Phoenix Zoo. The company’s headquarters are located in Grand Rapids, Mich., and the global business serves approximately 25,000 organizations with recognition programs, services and products.
Terryberry’s walking challenge was established in 2017 with the West Michigan Walking Challenge. In that first year, 52 West Michigan companies participated in the 6-week challenge with 2,635 participants walking more than 499,494 miles. During the 2018 West Michigan challenge, more than 4,300 participants walked an average of 245.6 million steps per week over the April 16-May 27 challenge period, for a total of nearly 1.5 billion steps walked.
About Terryberry
Founded by Herbert Terryberry in 1918, the company serves more than 25,000 clients throughout North America and Europe. Terryberry has been a major player in the innovation of employee recognition, including Give a WOW, the first-of-its-kind social media style employee recognition program launched anticipating the social media/business revolution in 2009, and the 360 Recognition Platform which continues to evolve as new tools emerge and the company forecasts business needs. The majority of its team of 250+ employees work at its world headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich. Terryberry’s Phoenix office is located at 3420 E. Shea Blvd., #105 in north Phoenix. For more information, visit www.terryberry.com.
