Four Years Running, Swimming, and Balling Our Way to the Top
For the fourth consecutive year, and fifth out of the past six, MRIGlobal has taken gold in our division of the Kansas City Corporate Challenge. This Olympic-style series of events – including basketball, track & field, pickleball, cornhole, flag football, swimming, and many others – is hosted at locations across the city. And in five of the past six years, and each of the past four, the team from MRIGlobal has come out on top.
Coordinated by the MRIGlobal Staff Activities Committee’s Kansas City Corporate Challenge Committee, teams of competitors are fielded from across the Kansas City office, including athletes from support staff, research scientists and engineers, and executive leadership. Such broad participation challenges bodies and minds, while boosting institute-wide camaraderie.
“Corporate Challenge provides a real opportunity to get to know each other outside of our work roles. This event has allowed me to connect with staff members who I wouldn’t typically connect with daily. And, these connections reinforce that we are all on the same team, working together towards a common goal,” said Luke McGlynn, Chief People Office, Human Resources, who participated in the opening walk, 5k run, and half marathon. “MRIGlobal staffers approach corporate challenge the same way they approach their jobs – they are highly focused, intent on delivering a good result, and have fun while doing it.”
More than 70 athletes participated in various events, helping the MRIGlobal team top competitors from across the city like Helzberg Diamonds, Populous, MilliporeSigma, Mars Petcare, and our neighbor Russell Stover Chocolates.
“Participating in Corporate Challenge as both a new participant and an event coordinator made it clear that MRIGlobal thrives because of the incredible spirit of team members from across the company,” said Ashley Griffin, Administrative Assistant, who participated in women’s volleyball, women’s bowling, track, and the opening walk. “I’m so grateful to have been part of a welcoming group, surrounded by Corporate Challenge veterans. Together, we all contributed to the success of this year’s season!”
This year’s gold medal winning events included women’s archery, women’s volleyball, women’s pickleball, women’s bowling, men’s bowling, 200m co-ed free relay, 200m medley relay, tug-of-war, several track & field events, and others.
“Speaking with one of our competitors at the tug-of-war event, he expressed his admiration for our achieving another MRIGlobal division win and asked how we did it. I told him that we’ve built a culture around it. We have a lot of dedicated employees who have bought in to Corporate Challenge. It’s become part of our identity and a point of pride,” said John Ronchetto, Property Specialist, Accounting, who participated in archery, horseshoes, tug-of-war, table tennis, and bowling. “That’s something you can’t build overnight and something we don’t take for granted. Then I said, ‘And see that lady (pointing to long-time participant Hope Green, who was there to cheer us on)? She crushes it.’” Read more about Hope in last year’s winning blog “Work Hard, Play Hard.”
During an awards ceremony in late July, the team will be recognized for winning our division… again.
INTERESTED IN JOINING THE TEAM?
To learn more about our team and how you can grow a career doing work that matters, visit our Careers page. While there, you can view our current staff openings and learn more about joining our team of world-class talent who are dedicated to delivering scientific and technical solutions to some of the most important challenges in the world.
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