COMMERCE CITY – City of Brighton and Commerce City staff members are at war.
Their enemy is not each other but a far more nefarious foe: their collective waistlines.
The two communities kicked off their second wellness challenge Friday at Buffalo Run Golf Course. About 75 employees of the two communities attended a luncheon and then listened as mayors Paul Natale and Dick McLean engaged in some playful banter to pump up their respective sides. Natale presented a trophy to McLean along with a bedazzled golden shoe from Brighton’s victory in the inaugural fitness challenge between the cities.
“You have this trophy now,” Natale ribbed McLean. “But, we’ll be taking it back in a couple weeks.
“That is so ugly,” McLean joked about the trophy, quickly handing it off to city human resources director Karen Borkowski. “We do have a spot in our trophy case for a new trophy, but I don’t think we want that in our trophy case.
“We take exercise breaks at the city, too,” McLean added. “We don’t take coffee breaks and doughnuts breaks.”
McLean noted, much to Natale’s chagrin, that Brighton’s Bagel Bakery would now be the sponsor of Commerce City’s coffee breaks.
Kidding aside, the goal of the challenge, according to Commerce City spokeswoman Michelle Halstead, is to capitalize on new studies that have found healthy employees are happy and more productive.
“Public sector employers, like Commerce City and Brighton, are increasingly trying to capitalize on these study results, encouraging employee wellness and fitness activities designed to increase active lifestyles,” she said.
City employees climbed atop a large scale together after the luncheon and had their cumulative weight measured. Over the next six weeks, each community’s employee wellness committee will host lunch hour boot camps, group exercise classes and even buy-one, get-one personal training sessions to ensure success for the employees participating in the challenge.
Natale said city employees would have to help keep him on track.
“I’m holding you all to be making sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” he said. “The first time you see me go in the back room for a council meeting, you slap my hand because we have not figured out healthy food at the council meetings. The greasier and fattier it is is what we order.”
Despite the upcoming competition, McLean praised the positive relationship with Commerce City.
“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “I’m really glad we’ve got camaraderie between the two cities. Paul and I have gotten along since we’ve known each other. Why not be friendly competitors instead of being enemies? We can do a lot more and have a lot more fun together.”
Contact Kevin Denke at 303-659-2522, ext. 225 or kdenke@metrowestnewspapers.com.