Friday, March 29, 2013
It's Hanover High School's birthday but you get the gift (of fitness)
How times flies when we're all having fun (getting smart and fit, that is)! To celebrate Hanover High School's tenth year of educational excellence in the community, you can be part of their innaugural 5k Run/Walk on Saturday, April 20 at 8:30 a.m. (giving yourself the gift of health and exercise). The event is sponsored by the HHS boys' soccer team and boys' and girls' track teams. Registrants who sign up before April 7 pay $20 per person or $50 per family, but if you're a Hanover County student or staffer (yes, all of us "Pamunkey-ites" are included), your cost is just $15. After April 7, the cost shifts to $25 per person, $60 per family, and $20 for county students/staff. T-shirts are guaranteed for early registrants. Food, prizes, and awards add to the fun! Visit http://www.facebook.com/HanoverHawks5K for more info or to access the registration form. If you have questions, drop an e-mail to kimberly.farnsworth007@gmail.com. And a big thank you to my colleague Christy for sharing this info with us!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Financial health = "what's going to be in your wallet?"
My colleague Jaime tipped me off about an upcoming four-part workshop series on retirement planning and financial education (read: "wallet health"!) for Hanover County employees that we "Pamunkeys" may be interested in. Retirewise will be presented by representatives from MetLife in a four-part workshop at the county's Board of Supervisors auditorium on Thursdays, April 11, 18, and 25 from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. and May 2 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. The workshop offers attendees wonderful tips and tricks to make retirement planning easier and will provide a helpful, "go-to" resource guide to answer all your questions. One-on-one consultations with MetLife reps will be available for those interested.
To register, call 1-866-801-3547 or visit www.metlifeplansmart.com - enter the code Hanover County (two words). Don't let your retirement plans simply be "yeah, I'd like to some day"...get informed now and make your future financial plans safe and secure ones.
To register, call 1-866-801-3547 or visit www.metlifeplansmart.com - enter the code Hanover County (two words). Don't let your retirement plans simply be "yeah, I'd like to some day"...get informed now and make your future financial plans safe and secure ones.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Instant Recess!
A week or so ago, I attended a (virtual) webinar about a funtastic initiative started out on the Left Coast called Instant Recess. The goal of the initiative is to "get America moving ten minutes at a time." In a nutshell, instead of taking a quick break during the workday to have a smoke or a candy bar, Instant Recess gets people up and away from their desks or workspaces, spending ten minutes doing simple (and I mean super-simple!!) dance steps, stretches, movements to music.
In the webinar, it's explained that libraries (as a center of information and community interaction) are the perfect place to launch an Instant Recess program. In some settings, one staff member leads the whole shebang each week; in other settings, different staff members rotate the duties (keeping the step repetoire and the musical selections fresh!). Basically, they pick a time each day (say, three o'clock), make an announcement to staff and patrons inviting them to join the leader in the designated place (the meeting room, in front of the circ desk, out on the sidewalk), and spend the next ten minutes getting heart-healthy, burning calories and having fun!
I recently demonstrated Instant Recess to management colleagues at our monthly meeting and also shared it with my own staff, utilizing the African Dance Lift-Off IR found here. It's amazing how many smiles sprung up during the sessions, even from those people who grudgingly said they don't "like to exercise" or "can't do the steps." Point is, by getting up and moving you'll see how much fun getting healthy can be...and isn't that the whole point of why we're doing these things?
(As an added bonus, if you're like me and you wear your pedometer constantly, you'll be thrilled to know that the average Instant Recess session will "use" over 500 steps. Wow!)
To learn more about Instant Recess, visit http://www.toniyancey.com/IR_Book.html.
To view the archived webinar, check out www.infopeople.olrg/training/instant_recess.
For more Instant Recess session ideas, type "Instant Recess" into your search engine or YouTube.
Give IR a try at your next staff meeting or long get-together. We'd love to hear about your ideas and sessions here, as well!
In the webinar, it's explained that libraries (as a center of information and community interaction) are the perfect place to launch an Instant Recess program. In some settings, one staff member leads the whole shebang each week; in other settings, different staff members rotate the duties (keeping the step repetoire and the musical selections fresh!). Basically, they pick a time each day (say, three o'clock), make an announcement to staff and patrons inviting them to join the leader in the designated place (the meeting room, in front of the circ desk, out on the sidewalk), and spend the next ten minutes getting heart-healthy, burning calories and having fun!
I recently demonstrated Instant Recess to management colleagues at our monthly meeting and also shared it with my own staff, utilizing the African Dance Lift-Off IR found here. It's amazing how many smiles sprung up during the sessions, even from those people who grudgingly said they don't "like to exercise" or "can't do the steps." Point is, by getting up and moving you'll see how much fun getting healthy can be...and isn't that the whole point of why we're doing these things?
(As an added bonus, if you're like me and you wear your pedometer constantly, you'll be thrilled to know that the average Instant Recess session will "use" over 500 steps. Wow!)
To learn more about Instant Recess, visit http://www.toniyancey.com/IR_Book.html.
To view the archived webinar, check out www.infopeople.olrg/training/instant_recess.
For more Instant Recess session ideas, type "Instant Recess" into your search engine or YouTube.
Give IR a try at your next staff meeting or long get-together. We'd love to hear about your ideas and sessions here, as well!
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