The 15th annual Richardson Corporate Challenge, a 10-week, Olympic-style business competition, held its closing ceremony on Friday, Oct. 19, at Galatyn Plaza and recognized the winning companies in each of six divisions. The winners in the size-based divisions were as follows: Division A – Raytheon; Division B – Fossil; Division BB – Pioneer Natural Resources; Division C – EO Innovations; Division D – Availity; and Division E – Ebby Halliday Family of Companies. Event officials also presented awards recognizing team spirit and outstanding company coordinators to various companies and their employees.
Richardson Corporate Challenge organizers announced that, over the last 15 years, they have raised over $1.2 million in cumulative donations to Special Olympics Texas, the event’s beneficiary since its creation. This year alone, the participating companies donated $160,000, which they raised through fundraising events over the course of the 10-week competition. A portion of the fundraising proceeds are earmarked annually for the local Richardson Roadrunners Special Olympics team.
At the closing ceremony, organizers also announced that 2012 title sponsor Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas has signed on to sponsor next year’s Corporate Challenge, too.
“We are so proud of our participating companies for their extraordinary accomplishments – both in the 10-week competition and the fundraising,” said Abby Morales, corporate recreation manager, City of Richardson. “These companies are leaders in DFW Metroplex, as evidenced not only by their business success, but also through their commitment to friendly competition, corporate team-building and support for the Special Olympics Texas, year after year.”
More than 10,000 employees from 55 DFW-area companies participated in this year’s Richardson Corporate Challenge. The Challenge is an Olympic-style corporate competition lasting over two months and featuring 24 events ranging from athletic sports such as softball, basketball, flag football and 3-on-3 women’s basketball, to non-athletic contests such as darts, billiards and miniature golf. The Richardson Corporate Challenge is the only one of its kind in Texas, and is believed to be one of the three largest multi-day Corporate Challenge events in the U.S.
Registration for the 2013 Richardson Corporate Challenge is now open to companies of all sizes in the DFW area. Companies interested in signing up for the 2013 Richardson Corporate Challenge should visit the competition’s website, www.cor.net/cc, or contact Abby Morales at 972-744-4585. The cost for participating companies ranges from $2,000 for companies with fewer than 349 employees, to $2,500 for companies with 350 or more employees.
This year’s 55 participating companies and organizations included (new participants in bold): AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group; Air System Components; Anritsu; ARGO Data; Resource Corp.; Availity; Baylor Health Care System; The Beck Group; BlueCross BlueShield of Texas; Burns & McDonnell Engineering; CA; Cisco Systems, Inc.; City of Richardson; CommScope; Companion Data Services; Concentra, Inc.; Convergys; Dallas County Sheriff's Department; Ebby Halliday Family of Companies; Esurance; ETC; FM Global; Fossil; Freese and Nichols; General Electric; GENBAND;The Heart Hospital; Baylor Plano; Hill & Wilkinson; Hilton; Insight; Integra Realty Resources; ISN;KBM Group; Layered Tech; L3 Communications; Lennox International; Markit; Mustang Technology; Nationwide; Pioneer Natural Resources; PepsiCo; PFSweb; PrimeLending; Quickscores; Raytheon Company; Raytheon- EO Innovation; Regus Management Group; Richardson ISD; Rockwell Collins; Samsung; SOURCE, Inc.; Southwest Airlines; Texas Capital Bank; TriQuint Semiconductor; The University of Texas at Dallas; Zynga; Zynga with Friends.
In 2000, the Challenge launched QuickScores.com, a one-of-a-kind online score tracking system, which was quickly emulated by other Corporate Challenge venues in the U.S. QuickScores allows the scorekeepers to immediately post scores from the daily events and also gives them the ability to track scores from previous years.
The Richardson Corporate Challenge is a professionally run, volunteer-driven, Olympic-style competition produced by the Richardson Parks & Recreation Department. A managing board, made up of a select group of company representatives and City employees, developed the policies and procedures that rule and govern the events.
Press release courtesy of the City of Richardson.