“We can continue to give back to the charity organization of our choice just by being active.”
“JLB has always been a charitable organization, says Kristina Bernatis, who previously oversaw training and marketing for JLB Residential. “We give back to many organizations throughout the year. Last year, we wanted to partner with an organization that would also bring wellness to the company.”
Kristina found Charity Miles and thought it was a great match.
“For us, it was a triple win,” she says. “We got to give back, we got to have our employees be active, and our employees got to support their charity of choice at the same time, which we felt was important.”
They did their first challenge last October. JLB chose to support the Susan B. Komen Foundation as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“We have several employees and family members of employees who have been affected by breast cancer,” explains Kristina.
Kristina worked directly with their CEO to set their fundraising goal, and the team raised an amazing $2200.
In January, they launched a second challenge as part of their annual leadership summit.
“We've done a philanthropy portion during the leadership summit for the last two years,” says Kristina. “When we launched our campaign, it coincided with the summit.”
The summit has always supported Family Gateway, and this year\'s Charity Miles campaign continued the tradition. Family Gateway is located in Dallas, where Kristina and the JLB corporate offices call home, and it supports people in housing need.
“Mostly it's women and children who are fleeing a domestic situation,” says Kristina. “And it's also for children and families affected by homelessness.”
The team was able to meet their goal of $2500 for January, “which was fantastic,” says Kristina.
One thing Kristina especially appreciates is that employees can keep using the app even when JLB isn't organizing a specific challenge. “We can continue to give back to the charity organization of our choice just by being active,” she says.
The team has loved to compete between departments during the challenges. In the last campaign, Kristina's residential team beat the construction team by one mile.
“One mile,” laughs Kristina. “It was amazing. Especially because there are two or three people on the construction team who are walking on the job all day, so they were getting miles and miles and miles. The top construction team member had over 800 miles in the last challenge!”
“That's what people appreciate about this program,” Kristina adds. “They love that they're able to give back, but they also like the internal competition and joking with each other.”
Team members log miles on the job, during workouts, and as part of daily life. Kristina walked with her children after school. Some employees would take breaks together during the day to get away from their computers and walk around the parking garage or up and down the building's stairs.
The team is looking forward to more challenges. “Our goal is really to give back,” she says. “And we'll continue to do challenges to keep the employees engaged, and for the healthy competition we have amongst each other. Because that's always fun. You've got to make work fun, right?” she laughs.
You do! We're thrilled we could help the JLB team have a good time while supporting such a great cause. Congrats to the whole team!