Your summer W@W newsletter is here!

Summer 2015

Equipment World is Having “Fun” with Wellness!

The Health and Wellness Committee at Equipment World is the “Fun” committee who bring health and wellness initiatives and activities to our coworkers. The vast majority of activities are offered to staff free of charge by the committee with the money that we raise through in-house fundraising and events!

We try to incorporate fun activities that draw the attention and interests to all our staff. At Equipment World we have such a diverse work place with staff located all over Northern Ontario, we have to be creative to ensure we are reaching the needs and attention of everyone while maintaining consistency. We have been able to utilize many “Lunch and Learn” programs provided by the Health Unit and have been able to include our other branches with us, which help us ensure we are all on the same page. We try to host one “Lunch and Learn” a month, where we offer a healthy meal or snack as an added bonus to all staff who attend – our new theory is “if we provide food, the people will come!” After each Lunch and Learn we send out emails outlining the topic and tips on how to utilize what we learned and use it in our day to day lives. In June we are starting “Mount Neverest” where all three of our branches will be taking part in the challenge to be more active. We created teams within each branch to compete and will finish with a company wide competition—the involvement we have had already is overwhelming. People love a good competition, so how can they not love one that helps them be more active every day and work as team towards a goal!

We have also found great success by hosting Healthy Snack Days – where we as the Health & Wellness Committee provide a sample of a healthy snack free of charge! We just completed “Seeds & Nuts Days”, where every Thursday we served a sample with an information and nutritional fact sheet. The “Healthy Snack Days” go over very well with our staff and the snacks are usually cleared out in the first hour. We will be hosting “Fresh Fruit Thursdays” for the summer and “Harvest Tuesdays” in the fall – lots to look forward to!

We find that by hosting and providing these options to our co-workers it becomes a small reminder for all of us to maybe rethink our snacks, or how to spend our time more effectively. We are always thrilled to see the participation levels grow at each event, as it shows we are making the right changes to help improve the work life of our co-workers!

Submitted by Riley Winters, Human Resources, Equipment World Inc.

Innovative Solutions in Northern Ontario since 1973.

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Refreshing Summer Mocktail

Mint Crush
By the: Martini Club

Fill a highball glass with ice. Add 1 oz. blueberry juice, the juice of 1/8 fresh lime, 1 tsp. chopped fresh mint and top with ginger ale. Stir to mix and garnish with a mint sprig and a cucumber spear.

http://foodanddrink.ca/lcbo-ear/RecipeController?language=EN&recipeType=3&action=recipe&recipeID=3399

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Bike Summit Success

On April 14, 2015, Thunder Bay held its first ever Bike Summit, “Biking Means Business.” This event was hosted by the Thunder Bay District Health Unit and the City of Thunder Bay, with the goal of mobilizing action and support for active transportation in workplaces, in the community, and among youth.

The Business Breakfast session had over 60 attendees from the business community. Participants heard from Canadian researcher, Dr. Markus Moos about the changing travel patterns of millennials and how to attract and retain young professionals in our community. Trends show that younger generations are driving less, buying fewer cars and choosing places where they can easily get around by walking, cycling or taking transit.

Jamie Stuckless, Executive Director of Share the Road Cycling Coalition, presented Thunder Bay with a Bronze level Bike Friendly Community Designation. This designation recognizes communities that actively support bicycling through engineering, education, enforcement and evaluation. Thunder Bay is the first northern municipality to receive a designation, and has also been selected as one of only three cities to participate in a Bike Friendly Business pilot program.

Glenn Gumulka, Executive Director of Sustain Mobility, presented information on the turnkey bike fleet program – CycleLoan. CycleLoan enables workplaces to buy a fleet of

bikes that their employees can use for meetings or recreation during work hours. Sustain Mobility makes it easy for employers by providing all the policies, marketing materials, and maintenance for the fleet. The Thunder Bay District Health Unit was proudly announced as the first workplace in Thunder Bay to have such a program to promote physical activity among their employees.

Overall, the Bike Summit generated great excitement around our cycling accomplishments. With summer upon us what better time to take a ride in our bike friendly city!

If you couldn’t make it to the summit, check out a short video recap of the event!
www.vimeo.com/earthcaretbay/bikesummit

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6 Steps to Organizing Summer Salad Office Events

Organizing a summer salad is a fun way to get co-workers interested and participating in healthy eating at work. A Summer Salad Event offers the benefits of eating more and different healthy foods, an opportunity to try new recipes and a break from packing lunch or needing to pick up take out. Here are some tips to get started planning an office recipe sign up event:

Send an email to gather feedback and interest about planning an office wide Summer Salad Recipe Event(s) to co-workers. This is also a chance to get others involved by finding a day of the week/month that works for most people, gather information about food allergies, and an opportunity to ask for recipe suggestions.
Recipe planning. Themes may be a way to get people involved or choosing 2 different types of salads may attract people to sign up for the event. Websites like allrecipes.ca; Eat Right Ontario and Food Land Ontario offer healthy salad recipes that are often rated by people that have made the recipe before. Choose recipes with a variety of colour to create visual appeal. Check the number of servings as this will determine the number of people per salad. You may want to double the recipe.
Create a sign-up sheet based on number of servings and ingredients needed.Provide information on where and when to bring the ingredient, the amount of ingredient needed with how it should be prepared and a blank space to sign up. Depending on what equipment your office has, it may be helpful to include other items for equipment like salad bowls, plates, forks and napkins (or let people know to bring their own from home). For example:
1/3 cup diced red onion Jane
1 cup crumbled feta John
Large Salad Bowl Joe
Salad Tongs Jess
Advertise. Send an office wide email letting people know what recipes were selected, where the sign-up sheets will be located and encourage people to participate. Other useful ways to communicate information is putting up advertisements, office newsletters or group meetings.
Keep food safe. Access to a fridge will help keep salad crisp and safe from bacteria. It is often easiest to have people bring and add their ingredient (with the exception of dressing that will make the salad soggy) early in the morning in case someone forgot an ingredient and needs to return home to pick it up.
Have fun! Each workplace will have their unique approach to these types of events. Getting people involved, eating healthy ingredients and even eating together offers a variety of benefits to both physical and mental health. Co-workers will appreciate the effort.

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It’s Time to Play Outside!

Summer is a great time for workplaces to encourage their employees to get active outdoors. Here are some suggestions for fun, easy to organize, low-cost activities that can be held during breaks or at lunch time.

Bocce Ball, “Ladder Golf”, or Croquet – you could borrow from staff that might have these games already at home and be willing to bring them to work for use
Hop Scotch, 4-Square, an Activity Circuit or any other sidewalk chalk games – all you need is chalk (and perhaps a ball)!
Outdoor volleyball or badminton – here are some tips to help you to organize a tournament for even more fun and to encourage some friendly competition!
- Talk to your staff first to check for interest. You’ll need to find out who is willing to help set up the nets/equipment as well as who would like to play. The more people helping you organize the tournament, the better.
- Create/print up/email promotional posters to encourage participation.
- Select a location. Decide where the tournament will be held. Will you need to set up a section of the staff parking lot or a near by grassy field?
- Purchase or find any equipment needed. If anyone has a set of rackets/nets/extra shuttlecocks at home have the owners bring them to work that day.
- In advance, make sure that court time is allocated according to the game length and no more. A good rule of thumb is to allocate 20 minutes for a 21 point game and 15 minutes for a 15 point game. Make sure the rules are outlined at the beginning of the tournament.
- And, most importantly, have lots of fun!!

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