Cascade Vacation Rentals (CVR) sponsored a wellness challenge for staff with a trip to Las Vegas as the prize. Marketing Coordinator Hannah Hoaglund (right) was happy to present the prize to Katterine Payer. The trip will be extra-special for Katterine as family visiting from Peru will be able to meet her there.
Hannah Hoaglund, marketing coordinator for Cascade Vacation Rentals (CVR), rolled out a 30-week wellness challenge for the staff at Cascade Vacation Rentals last September. The challenge concluded on April 5 with the winner awarded a trip for two to Las Vegas. And that lucky winner was Katterine Payer, operations and office manager for CVR.
“The joke around our office is if you go to work for CVR, somewhere in the fine print of the job description is that you have to participate in the Lutsen 99er or Le-Grand du Nord,” said Hoaglund.
“Our staff knows Mike Larson and Steve Surbaugh [co-owners of CVR] are proud supporters of the Lutsen 99er and Le-Grand bike events and they do encourage a healthy lifestyle for their staff – and they really only kid about the requirement to ride— so I wanted to put together a broader approach to health and wellness.”
The ground rules were relatively straightforward–each staff person was asked to identify an area in their life they wanted to improve and then be held accountable by indicating whether they met their goal for that respective week. If they met their goal, they were given a poker chip that could be used for monthly drawings and/or saved for the grand prize drawing. Seven monthly drawings were held (October – April) consisting of gift certificates to area restaurants and businesses with the grand prize being the Las Vegas trip.
“It was a system that was totally on their honor and it was interesting to watch our staff take this seriously and acknowledge to the group at our weekly staff meetings whether they met their weekly goal or not. And of course if the goal was met, a chip was given,” said Steve Surbaugh. Some staff saved all their chips for the grand prize drawing while some would toss in a chip here and there for weekly drawings as well.
Larson said there is a story within the story that was shared to the staff by Katterine when she was drawn as the winner. She has a sister who lives in Las Vegas who has a 2-year-old son and another on the way. Their mother lives in Lima, Peru and she is coming to visit the United States for the first time. Now combined with her grand prize trip to Las Vegas, Katterine’s entire family will be able to gather for the very first time in the United States later this summer.
Hoaglund said, “A family united— a fitting end to this wellness challenge.”
Larson added, “Hold on… Hannah is conjuring up her next CVR health and wellness challenge. Stay tuned.”
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