On Thursday 27th July, Tandem’s Thrive committee organised a go-karting grand prix event at the National Kart Centre Cork.
A great evening was had by all participants. Some friendly competitive rivalry and laughter on the racetrack made for a very enjoyable event!
Well done to Maciej Gloskowski, the overall winner on the evening with Sam Lee in second and Oisin Griffin in third.
The Thrive Committee is committed to the Health, Safety and Wellbeing of all Tandem’s personnel. The committee met early in January to establish activities and events for 2022.
Popular initiatives from 2021 have been retained, such as walking and running groups, healthy eating recipes, the book club, and the gardening group. Additional initiatives that have been added this year include a fitness group, hillwalking activities are planned for later in the year as well as a Waterford Greenway cycle, paddleboarding and some Ziplining.
Thrive issued challenges to the exercise groups and to reward participation have held a draw for a Fitbit / pair of Apple AirPods, the winner of the draw was Emma Twomey. .
Thrive recently held its first lunch and learn. The speaker was Andrew Burke Hannon, Andrew was a participant on Operation Transformation in 2021. Andrew spoke about his life before Operation Transformation, his journey on the programme and how he maintains his healthy lifestyle now. Andrew is an inspiration, not just for his healthy approach to living but also for his charity work.
Thrive, Tandem’s EHS and Wellbeing initiative undertook a mid-year survey and received an overwhelmingly positive response as well as comments and suggestions of activities for Q3 and Q4. Thrive is delighted with the levels of participation in its wellbeing initiatives to date and look forward to delivering a fulfilling programme to the end of 2021 and beyond.
The positive response means that Thrive retains a lot of the initiatives that it started earlier this year such as our Cycling, Walking and Running Groups, the Book Club will continue to meet, and our lunchtime Pilates classes will resume this month. We will continue to send healthy recipe ideas to help with meal planning and to host lunch and learn events with upcoming topics to include mental health and resilience, ophthalmic health, money matters and more!
New initiatives include a gardening group. Mags Coughlan, Head Gardener in Ballymaloe House will join our gardening group once per quarter to discuss what’s happening in the garden during the coming season and what jobs are required to keep everything growing. Other new initiatives include HITT classes, language groups and a Nature Photography Competition that will run during October.
Our Thrive committee has been busy during Q2, continuing our original activities and setting new goals and initiatives. Pilates classes and the book club have continued, along with our healthy recipe emails which have included seasonal foods and some BBQ ideas, ideal for this time of year.
The Thrive exercise groups are very active, our walking group’s latest challenge is to complete the Wild Atlantic Way, taking it in stages from Donegal to Cork, a distance of 2,600km in total. So far, they have walked over 860km and are ‘virtually’ in Achill, Co. Mayo. Our running and cycling groups are also undertaking their own Wild Atlantic Way distance challenges.
We had a fantastic response to our Children’s Art Competition in May, it was great to see such involvement and imagination from the participants, you can check out all of the entries here!
Thrive have held monthly lunch and learns sessions, in April we welcomed Mags Coughlan, Head Gardener from Ballymaloe House for some gardening tips. In recognition of May as Skin Cancer Awareness month, we hosted Michelle Dolan, Michelle Greenwood and Carmel Blake from the Irish Skin Foundation for a sun awareness and skin cancer prevention talk. To celebrate World Nutrition and Hydration week in June, we asked Marc Murphy, Nutritional Therapist, Lecturer and Clinic Supervisor with the College of Naturopathic Medicine in Cork to speak about quality hydration and summertime nutrition.
Entering 2021 under lockdown conditions, Tandem’s Thrive Wellbeing Committee was acutely aware that this lockdown was different. In March 2020, people adopted very positive health behaviours, engaged in constructive leisure time activities such as redecorating, rediscovering the joy of gardening or just getting through a list of chores. In 2021, people are experiencing lockdown fatigue, when moods are low and if we let them, they can affect those positive health behaviours that we established a year ago. The committee also recognised that a lack of societal interaction was having a heavy impact on people’s mental health. These coupled with the pressure of school closures, travel restrictions, altered work arrangements and inability to see family members are all reasons why Thrive put in place a series of initiatives aimed at enhancing wellbeing and providing a positive social outlet for all of our employees and contractors.
Our Q1 initiatives included a series of lunchtime pilates classes. Classes were designed to alleviate the stress caused by sitting at a desk for long periods of time. Introducing simple stretches that could be utilized at any time during the workday to ease tension and reinvigorate.
The committee has run informative lunch and learn sessions on nutrition and resilience. In January we welcomed Marc Murphy, a nutritional therapist, lecturer and clinic supervisor with the College of Naturopathic Medicine in Cork. Marc demonstrated healthy meal ideas while talking through the nutrition benefits of the meals and specific ingredients. In a similar vein, Thrive is sending emails with healthy meal planning ideas, twice weekly, to staff and contractors.
In February, we received a talk on resilience from Maureen O’Dwyer, a registered Mental Health nurse and Nurse Therapist with Highfield Healthcare in Dublin. Maureen walked us through the tools and techniques used to cultivate a mindset oriented towards greater self-compassion, which helps to reduce anxiety levels and decrease the risk of high stress levels and associated burnout.
The Thrive committee ran an outdoor photography competition, emphasising the requirement to adhere to government guidelines and remain within 5km of home. The competition resulted in 22 entries including images from locations such as Kerry, Cork, Dublin, Mayo and Clare. The winning entry was called ‘Blanketing the Green Road’ and can be viewed here: Photography Competition
Thrive has also established a book club, to encourage the joy of reading, to suggest new genres of books and to provide a social platform for discussion. Aptly, the first virtual book club meeting took place on World Book Day, 4th March. It was a great success with lively discussion and participation, the event delivered the intended fun and social interaction.
Lastly, Thrive has set up three exercise communities, for running, walking and cycling. The comradery is facilitated by WhatsApp groups and they have become lively forums for discussion.
The running group’s first challenge was to cumulatively run from Cork to Cheltenham and back before the Cheltenham racing festival. The walking group challenge was 21 in 21, to achieve individual walking goals for 21 days in a row. The cycling group virtually cycled from Tandem HQ to Croagh Patrick before St. Patrick’s Day.
The feedback from staff and contractors regarding these initiatives has been extremely positive. We look forward to continuing them, at the same time hoping that our virtual social activities can be replaced with safe, face to face social interactions in the not-too-distant future.
