40th Anniversary Inspires McGill on the Move

WHAT IS MCGILL ON THE MOVE (MOTM)

Wes Fleming; McGill on the Move — Wes Fleming, the Roanoke Office Manager at Bakers Mountain Park.

MOTM is a program McGill created in May 2023 that was inspired by the 2023 NC Year of the Trail, which celebrated the vast and diverse collection of trails in North Carolina and promoted being active outdoors. MOTM invites employees to make healthy changes, including getting outdoors and enjoying our natural resources, while celebrating the work McGill has done to improve trails and parks throughout North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The original goals for the program include encouraging McGill employees to:

Visit parks and trails McGill has worked on in some capacity
Be more active outdoors for health and well-being
Cultivate relationships with coworkers

In May 2023, McGill organized a five-month-long challenge that included five different components, such as getting outdoors, visiting McGill parks, snapping great photos, writing reviews, and enjoying the outdoors with coworkers. During this challenge, McGill employees logged over 3,500 hours of outdoor activity.

CONTINUATION of MOTM

With the success of the May 2023 challenge, we polled employees to see if they would be interested in continuing the program. Overwhelmingly, the consensus was to keep MOTM going. MOTM seems to be popular among staff and is a way to build community within McGill around healthy habits.

In celebration of McGill’s 40th anniversary, we decided to center the 2024 challenges around the number 40. Each quarter will have a new focus. For the first MOTM 2024 quarter, we challenged participants to log 40 days of exercise between January 1st and March 31st. To date, we have over 50% of participants on track to complete the program challenge.

LUNCH AND LEARNS

We recently began holding monthly MOTM Lunch and Learns on a variety of topics, which provide employees opportunities to gain knowledge about topics related to health and well-being.

Ahead of March being National Nutrition Month, McGill’s Lunch and Learn presentation at the end of February was focused on nutrition. Kurtis Durrant, a member of our land planning and recreation team, shared valuable insight about the importance of nutrition for our health. He emphasized the crucial role of properly fueling our bodies, likening it to taking care of a high-end car. Just as using the wrong fuel can have detrimental effects on a car, the same goes for our bodies. The virtual presentation emphasized the importance of personalization, because what works for one person may not work for another.

SPRING 2024 MOTM CHALLENGE

The MOTM Committee has been hard at work, creating new challenges to help keep McGill staff engaged and active. Continuing the momentum of the first quarter challenge, the second quarter of MOTM will focus on fueling our bodies, eating a combined 5 fruits and vegetables for at least 40 days. In addition to the main goal of eating right, we have added extra credit opportunities that will include reaching 10,000 steps a day and attending pop-up movement events with teammates.

Statistics show that only one in ten adults in the United States eat the recommended servings for fruits and vegetables. The median intake is 1 serving of fruit and 1.7 servings of vegetables. Given these statistics, we believe that this challenge will help our employees build new, healthy habits that are in line with recommended guidelines.

Toni Shope, McGill’s Director of Marketing, shared: “It has been encouraging to see the engagement around McGill on the Move. Using movement and promoting healthy habits is energizing participants to get more active, which has many benefits.”