Closing Celebration

The purpose of celebrating the close of the Take Action! program is to reward everyone who participated, recognize the Team Captains, and encourage people to continue their healthy eating and physical activity practices. Your celebration should be fun and interactive, and it should fit within the resources and time limitation of your workplace. There are a variety of ways you can celebrate the close of Take Action!, but whatever kind of celebration you choose, it should include the following elements:

  • Management participation
  • Team Captain recognition
  • Planning Committee recognition
  • Recognition of Team accomplishments, such as participation and goal attainment
  • Awards of the final goal attainment prizes
  • Showcase incentive/prize donors
  • Encouragement for participants to continue their healthy eating and physical activity practices

Preparation

  1. Start planning for the closing celebration once the Take Action! program begins.

  2. Use the closing celebration agenda provided on the next page or design one of your own.

  3. Select a date immediately after the 10-week program is completed, and pick a time that will be convenient for a majority of employees.

  4. Invite one or two participants to share inspirational stories of their successes on the program.

Here are some suggestions for Take Action! celebrations:

  • Take Action! Picnic. This is a good celebration if you have easy access to a picnic site, or if you can have a picnic already sponsored by your company. During the picnic, Teams can participate in games and activities. Provide healthy food and beverage choices or have participants bring items to contribute to a healthy potluck meal.
  • Group walk. This activity can be held during lunch or before work. All of the Take Action! Teams go for a walk at the same time. At the end of the walk, people are offered healthy refreshments and prizes are awarded.
  • Take Action! Round Two. The closing celebration is the perfect opportunity to announce the continuation of the Take Action! program. After the successful completion of the first Take Action! program, the best way to continue your worksite's emphasis on health is to focus on the next Take Action! behavior for another 10-week round of the program. If your worksite focused on fruit and vegetable consumption during the first round of Take Action!, then the second 10-week implementation of the program will focus on physical activity or vice versa.
  • Commitment to Environmental Change. The closing celebration is also the perfect opportunity for management to announce its commitment to making environmental changes in the worksite in order to further encourage healthy eating and physical activity. Such changes can include providing healthy options in vending machines and cafeterias or having a healthy meeting policy that will support and encourage physical activity breaks. See the California 5 a Day - Be Active! Worksite Program's Fit Business Kit for more ideas and tools to help implement these and other environmental changes at worksites.

Closing Celebration Sample Agenda

Customize this sample agenda for your Take Action! Closing Celebration.

©2005 California State Department of Health Services

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