by Rachel Witkowski
Staff Writer
The competition among Jacksonville businesses is getting heated — but this time, it’s not for more clients — it’s for the Cup.
Soccer’s World Cup starts next Friday in Germany, but Sept. 9 the YMCA of Florida’s First Coast will kick off its inaugural First Coast Games 2006. Sixteen teams of various large corporations, and members of the City Council and mayor’s office will compete for a crystal cup this fall. Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, VyStar Credit Union, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida and Florida Rock Industries, Inc. are among the committed participants.
“This is not a fly by night effort in any way,” said Ray Purvis, senior vice president for community development at YMCA. “They (the companies) see the credibility of the Y being high anyway. They see we take it seriously and we’re going to do a first rate event.”
The goal of the First Coast Games is to support Mayor John Peyton’s “Get Healthy Jacksonville Challenge” to promote a healthy lifestyle, Purvis said. Kevin Holzendorf, policy director for the mayor’s office, is among one of the first City employees to commit to competing.
The games will also help build a relationship among the businesses with a long-term goal of decreasing health care costs for the companies, Purvis said. According to a review in the “American Journal of Health Promotion” in 2001, work sites that participated in health promotion programs saved $3.48 per dollar invested in medical costs and $5.82 per dollar invested in absenteeism.
“It pays three times back,” said John Ream, director of marketing and communications at the YMCA. Ream used the data during a focus group of about 20 CEOs and human resource administrators of different corporations to develop and promote the First Coast Games last Wednesday.
Each business will create a team of 12 employees who will compete in all or most of the games and receive a 12-week Wellness Challenge starting in July. Any full-time and part-time employee can compete in the games but only the 12 volunteers who are selected by a corporate team captain will receive 10 weeks of personal training at the YMCA, one week of pre-screening and one week of post-screening. The Y has partnered with the Florida Department of Health to collect and analyze the data from the screenings, said Purvis.
Corporations that committed paid a $2,500 fee for the entire event. All participants will also receive temporary memberships to any of the 18 YMCA locations on the First Coast during the tournaments.
“We want to clearly demonstrate who we are and what we’re about,” said Purvis. “We want to have a deeper relationship. We want to have a deeper impact in the wellness of the community.”
The series of tournaments begins with a riverwalk run kick off at the Yates YMCA Downtown. Each competition will be at different First Coast YMCA branches every weekend and some weekdays.
The point system for the championship cup is based upon total points earned throughout the competitions that include basketball, golf, rock climbing, tennis, swimming, dodgeball, flag football and a family fun day. Teams can also earn points by having the best designed banner or employee cheerleaders, said Ream.
Individual awards and trophies will be delivered along with the traveling corporate champion cup at the award ceremony in October.
“It’s going to be a ton of fun for the people,” said Purvis. “And if you look at it, the value for the companies is pretty good.”
The YMCA partnered with adidas to provide professional uniforms for the teams. Tim Deegan, chief meteorologist for TV-12/25, and Nancy Hogshead-Makar, former Olympic gold medalist and currently an associate professor of law at Florida Coastal School of Law, volunteered as honorary chairs for the First Coast Games. Though the list of competing corporations is almost full this year, Purvis said they are accepting participants for next year’s waiting list as well as community volunteers for this year’s tournaments.
“We want to draw to the entire community together,” said Ream. “We want people to look forward to winning that cup and displaying it in their corporate offices.”