On Friday, November 14th, when most of you were at your desk working, Administrative Services staff was stranded in a New York State Apple Orchard. The only way out was to build a helicopter! Each team (9 in all) was given a predetermined set of materials, limited information, and then challenged to work together to build a helicopter within a constrained amount of time.
This exercise is designed to be fun and a highly effective hands-on experience that’s perfect for introducing and reinforcing basic team skills. Discussions followed on key points for working together to achieve an end result—in this case, escaping from an apple orchard.
After our helicopters were built and everyone escaped the apple orchard safely, we arrived back at MCC just in time for our “Apple” dish competition. Staff members volunteered to make homemade apple dishes—with apples being the main ingredient. Judging was performed by MCC’s very own faculty member Chef Gerry Brinkman of the hospitality department and 2 of his students; Junaya Nakhal and David Garnar-Allsopp. Each entrée was judged on: taste/flavor, texture, creativity, apple-ness, and presentation. The top three winners received a Certificate, a Wegmans gift card and, of course, bragging rights.
And the winners are……………3rd place, Dolores Pasto-Ziobro, Internal Audit, for an “Apple Sausage Appetizer”, 2nd place was awarded to Laurie Cherry, Building Services for her “Apple Spice Cake”, and 1st place was given to David Schottler, Facilities for his “Apple Gallette”.
Dr. Robert King, Director of Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute, provided us with interesting handouts and facts pertaining to Apples—Eat Fresh—Buy Local and Grow Monroe County!
By the end of the professional development session, administrative services staff built helicopters, escaped from an apple orchard, worked with new people, confirmed alliances, took part in sampling their colleagues baking/cooking, and learned about Western New York apples—WOW!!
Special acknowledgements go to members of our facilities department—Donna Utter, David Schottler, Blaine Grindle, and Fred McCullough who planned and facilitated this event and of course, our special guests Chef Gerry Brinkman, Junaya Nakhal, David Garnar-Allsopp and Dr. Robert King for their support in making our team building event outstanding.
Please go to the link below to view pictures of this event.
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Heze Simmons, Vice President
Administrative Services
12/04/2008 |