June 12, 1998

U of A rises to Corporate Challenge

U of A five-mile run team: clockwise left to right: Christina Weiss, Aminah Fayek, Michelle Gaucher, Louise Jenkins, Lucianna Ciccocioppo, Fran Trehearne, Doug Poff.

About 125 U of A staff and faculty were motivated to participate in the 1998 Corporate Challenge Games and bump the team up to sixth place overall, a tie with Worker's Compensation.

That's a one-place improvement over last year, says U of A coordinator Barbara Hepperle. Telus Communications placed first out of the 27 companies in our division. The U of A scooped six medals: a gold in table tennis; a silver in badminton; and three bronze in slo-pitch, soccer and squash.

Hepperle, a research technician, was on the squash team and says the battle came down to an old rival. "We beat Telus last year. And they beat us this year."

But the games are not about elite athletes competing in competitive sports.

"This whole idea is for stress reduction, to go out and have fun and meet people in the community. We're trying to increase the university's profile in the business community," says Hepperle. Last year, no one from the U of A showed up for either the opening or closing ceremonies. This year was different with a good-spirited tug of war drawing crowds on the last day, says Hepperle. Final results are available on the Web after June 15 at www.corporatechallenge.alberta.com/alberta/CORPCHAL/com_standings.html

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