How will your project change or improve the lives of MU Extension learners?

• We can be good role models for health and wellness.
• These wellness competitions can be replicated for use with Extension councils.
• A similiar wellness competition could be used with the community or program participants.

How will your project change or improve your leadership capacities with MU Extension?

To first address this question, I looked back at my Herrmann Whole Brain Model.

• I need to work more in the D Quadrant.
• I need to be more of a risk-taker, look more at the big picture and the future, be more innovative, look at long-term objectives, and other unusual possibilities.
• This project was something that had not be done before, so I had nothing previous to base this on. I had to be creative and innovative to develop something new.
• This project was a risk, because not everyone cares or buys into wellness. I knew that not everyone would participate.
• I had to look at the big picture of wellness. I tend to just think about physical activity and nutrition, but wellness is so much more than that.
• This project was not organized in the way that I enjoy organization. It was difficult to sort out all the pieces.
• I had to take everyone's suggestions into consideration, even if some seemed unusual or strange, during the input and feedback surveys.
• There was some criticism, but I had to learn to roll with the punches and not take it personally (that's my C Quadrant).
• One thing that remains is to look at some more long-term objectives for SC wellness.

How will your project change or improve delivery of educational programs?

To address this question, I thought about the importance of having healthy faculty and staff to deliver programs and resources. Faculty and staff who are sick, with a disease or condition, or recovering from a disease or condition cannot deliver programs.

• Employees who participate in wellness programs have lower absenteeism rates. For every $1 spent on wellness programs, an average of $3.50 is saved. (Whitmer, R.W., Pelletier, K.R., Anderson, D.R., Baase, C.M., and Frost, C.J. (2003). A wake-up call for corporate America. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 45:9,916-925.)
• For every additional risk factor that an employee has, it costs about $350 more per year. Risk factors include overweight, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and poor nutrition. (O’Donnell, M.P. (2002). Employer’s financial perspective on workplace health promotion in Health Promotion in the workplace, 3rd ed. Albany, NY: Delmar.)
• Wellness programs can target these risk factors and reduce the chance for disease.
• Wellness programs can encourage healthy habits or educate about healthy habits.
• MU Extension cares about wellness, but it can be hard to reach regional or off-campus staff.
• We all work hard, so it's important to keep ourselves healthy and improve our well-being.
• Wellness is OUR responsibility, not the responsibility of our organization.