We’re not sure a group has ever responded to an event as well as this team did in Chantilly. Osborne Events’ team building program had 180 participants made up of sales and marketing people. They had been in sessions all day before they came into the impressive Westfields Marriott ballroom.

Building on Differences, Building Bicycles

This makeup of people at the end of a long day sometimes means the crowd may have a harder time settling into the Bike-A-Thon™ program. Our goal was to help the group strengthen their ability to appreciate differences in personality and build on those differences in working towards a common objective. In this case, we were putting together new bicycles for children enrolled at nearby Houston Elementary School.

While they had a great time and showed it with enthusiastic and loud participation, they were fully engaged in the activities and right with me the entire event. Air Counting made a good ice breaker, although instead of breaking the ice, we used it to bring everyone’s focus back to the event. After dividing into teams, we played several rounds of mini-games for earning bicycle parts and tools, such as Blind Skeeball, Flip the Cup, and Card Tower. This was a competitive group, and teams finished their bicycles in record time!

Making a Difference for Chantilly, VA Children

The best was yet to come, though. Only a small handful of attendees had any idea that kids would come in to the room to receive the bikes, so the group’s reaction was powerful. Darryl Webster from the Houston Elementary school brought the kids because one of his roles is to work with kids who have in the last year been affected by a homicide in their family. When he mentioned that, the hearts of the McCormick team melted even more than when the kids came into the room.

Changing Lives of Participants and Kids

After the event, it was more than 40 minutes before the crowd left. They were so engaged with the kids and connected to the event that they didn’t want to leave. More people approached us with appreciation for the Bike-a-thon than at any event we’ve ever done. And very importantly, the leaders of this team were making long term commitments to the school and Darryl’s program. It made it hard for us to leave!