Edmonton Valve Associates Get Ready to Test Brain and Brawn

“The Regulators” gear up for the Edmonton and Area Corporate Challenge

The Edmonton and Area Corporate Challenge has grown into a large annual event since it was founded in 1992. This year, Edmonton Valve & Fitting is joining in with more than 170 other companies in a friendly series of competitions.

	All of our associates will be rocking this Swagelok blue "The Regulators" t-shirt at the Corp Challenge events!

So far we've signed up 42 people, about two-thirds of our staff, to battle other teams in a variety of sporting activities, including basketball, golf, bunnock, cribbage, poker, table tennis, badminton, bowling, darts, horseshoes and a more! And to kick-off the challenge we held an internal naming contest for our team name. The winning submission, “The Regulators,” came from our Custom Solutions department.

Not just fun and glory

The Edmonton and Area Corporate Challenge games were created as a way for local companies to foster employee interaction, teamwork, morale, pride, health and wellness. "The faces you’ve only passed in the hallway or the voices you’ve heard on the phone suddenly become your volleyball teammates or your badminton partners," the organizers say. Some companies develop friendly rivalries that keep going on the golf course or softball field long after the Corporate Challenge is over.

There's also a community service component. The Corporate Challenge also includes a blood drive and EVF’s has been organized by Delia Roman.

	Associates getting ready to load the bus and donate blood!

"Canadian Blood Services is in need of blood donations, so it's a good time for us to be there and support the people who need us," Delia says. “We had a team of associates go down on April 15^th to donate and have had a number of associates donate outside of work. We’d love to see this as an ongoing project for our company, make it an annual event or even every six months."

Family and friends of Edmonton Valve & Fitting associates can help out by donating blood and using the ID number EDMO502328. Donations can be made on behalf of our company before June 1st.

There are other "spirit" events that help organizations, such as The Big Bike, a 30-seat bicycle —we use the term loosely — to help raise funds for the Heart & Stroke Foundation

The competition will wrap up with a Family Day on June 11th, when we'll set up a tent and serve a barbecue lunch for everyone who participated in our group. There's also the PowerPull competition which we are hoping to get a number of our associates to participate in.

In training     

We're taking the Corporate Challenge seriously. One of our associates brought a ping-pong table to the warehouse. Someone else brought in a dartboard. We've also been holding elimination cribbage games to see who will make the team.

We recently participated in some trivia nights, called Brain Freeze events. It's stiff competition, says Derek Green, operations coordinator for our Custom Solutions department. Questions included things like naming the official rock of Alberta (can you name it?)!

So if you stop by Edmonton Valve & Fitting and you spot somebody on a break throwing darts, they aren't goofing off. They're in 'training.'

We hope you'll cheer the Regulators on to victory as we battle it out with 18,000 other participants from May 25 through June 11.