Summer Spotlight: Raise the Bar Week 2
Whether it’s staying active, eating well, or building stronger team relationships, the UW community continues to share the ways they’re cultivating a culture of wellness in the workplace as part of our ongoing Raise the Bar summer challenge.
Every Wednesday through August, we’re featuring your stories of developing healthier, more positive work environments in our weekly Summer Spotlight series (see the end of this article for details on how to submit to be featured). Catch our Week 1 Summer Spotlight if you haven’t already, then see what teams got up to in the challenge’s second week below.
Quotable
Jyoti Naik, UW ADA architect/certified access specialist in Engineering Services, shared some great advice for anyone looking to improve their overall wellness:
“You are never too young, too old, too busy or too unhealthy to learn new wellness strategies and take baby steps to self care.”
Tacoma on Top
The UW Tacoma Library Team went above and beyond to kick off their Raise the Bar challenge—creating space to share affirmations, taking part in The Whole U Tai Chi 7-week series, and coordinating a Library-wide healthy recipe e-book to share with colleagues, among other activities (check out their full report here). Here’s a selection of summery snapshots from their first week and half.
“The UW Tacoma Library Team is starting strong to finish strong,” said Megan Saunders, Electronic Services circulation desk technician, whose team consists of Alaina Bull, Hannah Wilson, and Johanna Jacobsen-Kiciman. “We created a Slack channel for the team to send each other helpful tips, reminders, and affirmations, started a team drive for notes on our official and unofficial team meetings, started a round of walking groups, and enjoyed the quiet moments in our days.”
Law and Order
The UWPD is usually busy upholding law and order in the community, but sometimes that extends to the garden walk! Their Raise the Bar team, comprised in part of Robyn Riley, Karly Kern and Steve Rittereiser, initiated a Weed Pull Challenge to stay active and keep their walkway neat and clear.
Game Faces
Erin Rice shared this photo of the Campus Employee Relations team cheering on the Mariners last Friday—a winning effort for all involed! What a great way to build UW community while staying #TrueToTheBlue!
Eating Well
For the second week in a row, MaryJane Lohr checked in for Team LoKB at the School of Dentistry, sending us photos of their healthy breakfast potluck. Here’s a mountain of their delicious-looking frittatas coupled with some fresh berries!
Grill & Chill
You know things are really heating up when Karen Beaudry, captain of the Applied Mathematics team, sets up a portable Weber grill for a spontaneous team cookout in the Lewis Hall parking lot that featured grilled zucchini and no-nitrite frankfurters (vegetarian and all-beef) as well as grilled peaches for dessert. We look forward to seeing what they add to an already-stupendous summer spread in the weeks ahead!
In addition to their creative spin on eating well, the Applied Mathematics team also set their summer in motion at the HUB, attending the IanFitness bootcamp earlier this month.
Thanks for a great second week! We can’t wait to see what strategies and creative ideas you have been able to come up with for Week 3 and beyond! Continue sharing your stories of success and challenges overcome with us at wholeu@uw.eduto be featured! We also invite you to join and post your photos and reflections to our Whole U Being Active Facebook group or share them on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #raisethebaruw.
Special thanks to our Raise the Bar sponsors: UW Medicine, AT&T, US Bank, BECU, and UW Resilience Lab! The background photo in this week’s featured image is courtesy of Robin L. Hendricks of the Office of Information Research Services.