(Nov. 14, 2012)

Two Thrive Across America teams. One in the top five in team rankings. Healthy potlucks? Something good is happening in the Office of the Bursar, so we talked to Janet Burkhardt, assistant director, to learn more.According to Janet, it was a natural fit that employees in the Bursar's office signed up for Thrive Across America, the 8-week challenge sponsored by well@du to encourage physical activity among employees.

"Most people in this office are pretty active," Janet says. "I exercise regularly, but I was falling off on weekends. When people started talking about Thrive, I saw it as a way to push myself."

Organizing a group activity was easy for the Bursar's office. Janet says they have an ongoing morale committee, which took on the task of organizing the department's involvement in Thrive. The group had a Thrive Across America sign-up event, and they had so many people interested, they needed to form two teams – the Bursar Betties and Bursar Bruisers.

"At our kickoff, we had a potluck where people brought in healthy snacks," she continues. "We had each person state their goals for participation in the Thrive program and commit to supporting each other.

"We've found that Thrive is helping build stronger relationships with our co-workers. If someone is having a stressful day, others are suggesting taking a short walk together to relieve stress. When one of our team members reported having difficulty working out on weekends, a co-worker suggested the two text each other to provide motivation and encouragement. We're finding ways to be competitive with our activity points in our normal work days, and people are discovering that a quick 10-minute walk is helping productivity."

Janet made exercising five days a week her goal when starting Thrive. She's doing seven days a week because of the program, and her husband has been motivated to match her daily workouts. "It doesn't have to be going to the gym every day," she says. "One day I walked up and down the 42 stairs in our Victorian-era home, just to get in an activity."

She says the key is to find different ways to put in a few extra minutes of activity each day.

Thrive is delivering unexpected benefits to the Bursar's office. Janet says their two teams include some employees who exercised little or not at all before the program. "People are inspired to do anything to get moving because they don't want to let their team down. For some people, it's as simple as taking regular walks, and they're seeing a positive difference in their appearance as a result."

Thanks to Thrive, employees in the Bursar's office expect to continue exercising after the program ends Nov. 18. "Employees say it makes them feel good, as a group we're talking about physical activity more and chocolate as the snack of choice is going away," Janet says.

"The most important thing is that we like our co-workers so much, we want them all to be healthy.