'Ohana' shines in Corporate Challenge 2018
With the end of Westlake's annual Corporate Challenge, laughter, fun and camaraderie was seen throughout the two-week-long competition. We had 14 teams competing this year but one team, Q Lab, captured the soul of this year's theme – "Ohana," or family.
Team Q Lab has been competing in Corporate Challenge since 2014. One of their employees loved this annual event and participated every year. This July, he passed away but he had encouraged his team to be strong and win. Extending his legacy, he and his wife planned to donate backpacks to the Pack the Pack Challenge which benefitted Fox 8’s Stuff the Bus Campaign.
Having come from a large family, extended family members asked his wife what they could do to support the family. She responded that they could donate backpacks filled with school supplies, and they did. In all, his family donated 18 backpacks filled with pens, paper, rulers and much more.
To compete the challenge of Pack the Pack, each team was to donate 10 filled backpacks. Team Q Lab had over 18 so they reached out to competitors to see if anyone needed a filled backpack to complete the challenge. For this challenge over 80 backpacks filled with thousands of supplies were donated to the Stuff the Bus Campaign.
In addition to Pack the Pack, community outreach challenges also benefitted the Red Cross with over 130 pints of blood being donated and the Westlake Community Services food pantry received over 1,000 nonperishable food items and $300 in cash donations.
Teams competed in a variety of events such as golf, Texas hold 'em, and sand volleyball. The cardboard boat races are always a highlight of the competition displaying the creativity and ingenuity of each team as they race across the Recreation Center pool. New events this year consisted of lawn bowling, a whiffle ball home run derby and children’s games. The overall champions for the 12th annual Corporate Challenge were Teams Q Lab and Echo in each of their respective divisions.
During the last week of Corporate Challenge teams competed in a cupcake decorating contest. Delicious creativity was on display with the Westlake Rec's Pina Colada cupcakes sharing first place with United Consumer Financial Services for their division and Echo taking first place in their division.
Team Q Lab's entry brought us back to why we were here: family. Their display honored the loved ones they had lost in the past few years, reminding us that life is raw and painful at times but when we come together and lean on each other we heal, we grow stronger, we move forward together. We are Westlake. We are Ohana.
Beth Patterson
The Westlake Recreation Center is a family facility offering a wide range of programs and activities. We also have a large fitness area, indoor track, group exercise rooms, indoor pool, and gym.