SMS’ 2021 Fitness Challenge for Charity

This spring, SMS employees and family members participated in a six-week fitness challenge promoting health and employee engagement. Similar to the 2020 challenge, participants competed with colleagues and contract teams in accumulating the most minutes of activity each week. This year, 13 teams with 157 participants ranging in age from 15 to 83 won badges and raffle prizes each week. During the six-week program, SMS employees logged over 200,000 minutes of activity, averaging roughly 250 minutes weekly per participant!

As part of SMS’ focus on charitable giving, the first and second place teams were each rewarded with a donation to their charity of choice. The two top teams were:

First Place – Kingdom Love at Gunter AFB in Montgomery, AL

Team Kingdom Love  were heavily were involved in participating in various group fitness classes offered through the Gunter Community such as spin classes as well as cheerleading conditioning and softball team games. Aaron Graffius, team captain and Sr. Systems Engineer commented, “The pandemic has pushed us to exercise more together as a couple, as a family and deepen bonds instead of only exercising independently.”  The team picked the Montgomery Alabama Area Food Bank as their charity of choice.  SMS made a $1,500 donation in their honor for being the winning team!

Team Members Included – Aaron Graffius (Team Captain), Gretchen Graffius and Breeze McGee.

Team All Aboard the Brinkman Ship members  were committed to the point of working out at the gym an average of 2-3 hours a day.  All Aboard Team Captain  Chris Brinkman commented, “It was exciting to see our hard work pay off as we climbed up the leaderboard.”  The team chose the New Life Church of God as their charity of choice and SMS donated $1,500 to them in honor of the team winning second place!

Team Members Included – Chris Brinkman (Captain), Jonathan Brinkman, Israel Milla and Angeleah Matthiensen.

Congratulations to the top two teams and to all 13 teams participating in the challenge!

Area Food Bank CEO Richard Deem (far right) accepting the check from SMS’ Team Kingdom of Love teammates Breeze McGee, Gretchen Graffius, Aaron Graffius in front of the Montgomery Alabama Area Food Bank’s main distribution center.