LEXINGTON, KY– Healthy employees are happy employees. Successful HR Professionals and Senior Leadership know that having a workplace wellness program can boost morale, improve health and fitness and increase productivity in the workplace. KVC Kentucky’s Bluegrass Wellness at Work Challenge was created to give companies access to wellness initiatives as well as reward those who adapt their company initiatives to include wellness. Rewarding employees’ achievements will keep them excited and living a healthful lifestyle, with an added bonus of trophies and community recognition!

The 2015 Bluegrass Wellness at Work fitness challenge will run from June 20 – Aug. 8. Participating companies compete against each other, classified within the categories of small (under 25 employees), medium (25-99), and large (100 or more). Employees will use the Bluegrass Wellness at Work app to input their activity, receiving 1 point for every 15 minutes of exercise they record. The fitness challenge started as a project from the 2013 Leadership Lexington class, a program of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce, aiming to create a simple challenge that includes all levels of fitness from walking to running to swimming, and counts each type of fitness equally. The goal is to promote active lifestyles by improving on each person’s current activity level.

Many Lexington companies have great programs promoting wellness for their employees, but no way to share their successes. This program gives those organizations a chance to communicate their ideas and hopefully help others follow in their footsteps, all while creating a little competition, reward, and a social aspect. “This year, we are providing more opportunity for the participating organizations to interact with each other. We will have dedicated social media platforms, a weekly email update, a happy hour benefitting Kentucky children in foster care, and an awards celebration where employees can meet their competition and interact with each other,” states Elizabeth Croney, President of KVC Kentucky and member of the Leadership Lexington team who originally created the challenge.

Since its inception, the challenge has partnered with United Way’s 5K on the Runway. This year, the 5K will take place on June 20 and serve as the kickoff to the challenge which runs through Aug. 8, when participants can take part in Baptist Health’s Midsummer Night’s Run. During this seven week challenge, the participating organizations will receive weekly updates showing how they stack up against their competition. They will also have opportunities to interact at after-work events including a happy hour and a celebration to announce the winners a week after the challenge ends.

To learn more about the Bluegrass Wellness at Work Challenge or to sign up your organization, visit bluegrasswellnessatwork.org.

ABOUT KVC KENTUCKY 

KVC Kentucky, headquartered in Lexington, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit child welfare and behavioral healthcare organization that provides behavioral health services, foster care, family preservation and diversion, and other family-related services. KVC’s services are in-home, strengths-based, and driven by a focus on the safety, permanency, and wellbeing of the child and family. Each year, KVC Kentucky serves more than 10,000 children and families in eight regions of the state. The organization is a subsidiary of KVC Health Systems which directly touches the lives of over 50,000 children each day across the U.S. Learn more at www.kvckentucky.org.