Annual Gift of Learning (and bikes!)

So the holidays got a little brighter for both our employees and a group of pretty lucky kids today. We did something different for our Gift of Learning event this year that pulls our hard-working team members away from their busy jobs for a chance to develop skills while doing some holiday socializing (and eating too, of course... we always get a great lunch out of the deal!).  Instead of a speaker or a presentation, we invited the group from Corporate Teams to lead their Build-a-Bike program!

Employees were divided into groups and each completed challenges to "earn" pieces of the bike they were to assemble and decorate for their chosen child.  A couple pictures below show our teams building balloon towers - working together, they had only the breath in their lungs, a few balloons, and a roll of tape to construct a ceiling-scraping tower.  We all did it!  Other challenges included balancing 10 nails on the head of one nail and keeping a piece of paper aloft for 30 seconds (much harder than it sounds!). In the end, the bikes were safety checked before we got to meet our kids and hand over the finished bikes, complete with a helmet and a lock.  The large space even allowed them to hop on and ride!  Have fun, kids - enjoy those shiny new bikes!  We sure enjoyed putting them together for you (and we all got a little better working as a team in the process!).