GREENFIELD — Five teams of individuals competed to see who had the fittest members during the inaugural corporate challenge Saturday at the North Street Fitness Festival.
The fourth-annual event, a street festival in downtown Greenfield with a myriad of opportunities for residents to exercise and learn about different fitness opportunities, is a partnership between Greenfield Main Street and Healthy 365, two county nonprofit organizations. The inaugural Hancock County Corporate Challenge is inspired by a similar event Hancock Regional Hospital staff members participated in at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said Healthy 365’s healthy community coordinator, Amanda Everidge.
Teams from Hancock Health, Greenfield Banking Company, Greenfield Police Department, the Greenfield-Central High School cheerleaders and Change Fitness, a personal training business, signed up for the challenge, which included a 5K run, push-ups and sit-ups, corn hole, basketball, and a Frisbee toss.
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Devon Brown, owner of Change Fitness, accepted the trophy for winning the inaugural event. His team of about 20 individuals included clients and family, he said. The winning team received a package of 30 tickets to the July 7 Indianapolis Indians game with access to a VIP party deck.
Brown said he was excited to see the corporate challenge offered during the festival, adding the challenge was “super fun.”
Individual prizes for high scores in the challenges included $50 gift certificates to golf courses, indoor karting and zip line facilities.
Greenfield Main Street executive director Shelley Swift said she enjoyed the crowd and the weather during Saturday’s event.
“It’s nice to see high energy on North Street and see people focused on fitness,” she said.
Area children were encouraged to exercise and visit downtown businesses with the Passport to Fitness program. Those who visited 15 downtown businesses and did a short activity like jumping jacks could present their completed passports and receive a superhero cape.
The festival kicked off early Saturday morning with the second-annual Superhero 5K, which nearly 200 people participated in this year, said Hancock Regional Hospital congregational network navigator Erika Bruggeman. The race nearly doubled its participants from its inaugural year, she said.
The festival has expanded in a variety of ways since its inception in 2014, at times offering giveaways of gently used bicycles and giving space to vendors specializing in mental and spiritual health in addition to highlighting physical fitness and healthy nutrition choices.
Everidge announced hospital programs promoting mental health, including classes for mental health first aid and QPR training, a suicide-prevention course, which the hospital is offering in July.
And Community Health, which has a behavioral health office in Greenfield offering group and individual counseling, had a booth at the festival this year, where counselors encouraged festival-goers to relax by hula hooping.
In the afternoon, organizers announced the winners of the Greenfield in Bloom contest, which encourages area nonprofits to put their creativity to work in building eye-catching bicycles with fresh flowers, which are placed around county downtown areas.
For a second year running, Hancock County Public Library and Sister Cities of Greenfield won first and second places respectively. The library will use the bicycle it won as a prize for its summer reading program, said director Dave Gray; the Sister Cities program will use its bicycle as a prize for a 5K run it hosts in the fall, said Jim McWhinney.
