Perkin Elmer Wins Again!

Perkin Elmer is the 2009 Griffin Hospital Community Corporate Champion, but that's getting to be old news at Perkin Elmer as this is their third straight win and allows them to become the fourth team to retire a Corporate Cup with three wins. It was a very impressive performance this year as the dominated the series by winning five of the nine events and never finishing lower than fifth in any one of them. The complete story is on the Corporate Cup web page including a video interview with the winners and the complete final standings.

At one point in the interview, I asked Bob VanEgghen about the keys to Perkin Elmer's domination the last three years, and he immediately spoke about their persistence. Off camera, Geraint Phillips jokingly noted that the real key is the fact that he came to the Shelton facility three years ago, and Perkin Elmer has won every year since! That's no idle boast as Geraint competed in several events and is one of the great Healthy Team success stories this year. On top of that, his wife Kate was the first female across the finish line in the 5K Road Race.

This year's Cup event included the addition of a 5K run and Wiffle Ball as a new event. We welcomed BIC Corporation and Barnum Financial Group as new competitors. Griffin Hospital celebrated its 100th birthday and opened the new Cancer Center and their Cardiac Rehab Center for Healthy Team testing. As I mentioned last night, the sportsmanship displayed by everyone this year was extraordianary and contributed to the enjoyment of all.

Our real hope is that everyone who participated benefitted from the experience. We'll need to add up the weight lost, cholesterol scores improved and blood pressure results that have dropped, but just discussing the event with participants shows that they have benefitted from their involvement.

I want to thank our name sponsor, Griffin Hospital, for the incredible job that they do in promoting wellness in our community. Most people think of hospitals as just a place to treat the sick. Griffin Hospital goes way beyond that in trying to keep us all well.

I also wnat to thank our other partners the Valley YMCA and the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce. It's a partnership that we really value and which works excpetionally well.

I also want to thank our hosts for all of this year's events. Without their support, there could not be a Corporate Cup.

And finally, I want to thank everyone who participated. It was exciting to see so many people enjoying themselves while contributing their own health.

See you next year!!