The Ontario Broker - April 2019 - 37

THE CHARITY
FITNESS CHALLENGE
BY JEFF TOTH, MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR, IBAO

I

n December of last year I noticed that the buttons on my shirts,
especially those around my midsection, were under a lot of stress.
I was going to the gym, but only sporadically and clearly not often
enough to counteract my all-too-frequent food court lunches. I
needed to do something different.

With New Year's resolutions just around the corner it was the perfect
time to try out a long-gestating idea I had for a staff engagement
initiative called The Charity Fitness Challenge. Participating IBAO
employees would set a weekly fitness goal for themselves, for
example, going to the gym three times per week. Each week that they
achieve their goal, $10 would be donated to charity on their behalf
and each week that they fall short of their goal, they have to make the
$10 donation themselves. Every Friday the employees would meet to
update the group on their activity for the week.
IBAO management was supportive of the program and helped
to arrange corporate sponsorship by our Affinity Partner, The
T-R Group, to cover the cost of the donations. Tony Pilon, HR
Consultant & Facilitator with the T-R Group said, "We were thrilled
to be a part of this program. It checks a lot of boxes: staff engagement,
wellness, charitable giving. Not to mention, it's for a great cause."
All proceeds went to Breakfast Club of Canada. "Our mandate is
to make healthy breakfasts available to disadvantaged children
to nurture their learning and growth," explained Rylee Cooper, a
Development Coordinator with the charity. "For each dollar donated
to Breakfast Club of Canada we're able to provide one healthy
breakfast to a child in need."
By focusing on the obvious good done by Breakfast Club and
emphasizing that by participating you'd be contributing up to $100
to the cause, we had nearly 90 percent of IBAO employees opt-in.
My secret aim of the program was to build a fitness culture within
our office that would last beyond The Challenge and many of the
features of the program were designed with that in mind. According
to behavioural science, 10 weeks is roughly the length of time you
have to stick with something to create a new habit. It's also a long
enough time that by the end you'll be able to see some of the positive
results which can be a great motivator. The weekly update meetings

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37

were baked in to create a sense of group accountability, providing
positive reinforcement for successes and encouragement when it's
needed.
Over the course of The Challenge, I watched my pear-shaped torso
slowly transform into more of a torso-shaped torso and my fitted
shirts stopped being ill-fitted shirts. I'm now in the best shape that
I've been in over the past few years and many of my coworkers can
say the same thing about themselves.
"The Challenge helped me establish a routine and get my butt in
gear," said my coworker, Tracey Blouin.
A couple of the participants signed up for new gym memberships
that they'll be maintaining going forward. Some found the group
accountability so helpful for staying on track they wanted to
continue our weekly meetings, so we've formed a fitness club to keep
striving for personal achievement.
The Charity Fitness Challenge ultimately raised $1240, only $80 of
which was paid out by IBAO employees. We celebrated the end of
The Challenge with a pizza party and sundae bar, because we really
earned a cheat day.
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The Ontario Broker - April 2019

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