City employees cut pounds in contest

by Michael Nowotny

Mountain Home News

Paula Szafranski, a Mountain Home City Hall employee, took home the top prize of $530 after winning the city departments "Biggest Loser" competition.

The "Biggest Loser" program was coordinated by Melanie Rhodes of the Mountain Home Police Department back in 2007 to help promote better health for employees of the city of Mountain Home.

The program was funded by fees paid by participating employees. It kicked off on Jan. 26 with a weigh-in at Fitness First.

In order to take part in the event, each competitor paid $10 to enter the contest. The money made up the top prize that would be won by Szafranski.

The winner was determined by a total percentage of weight loss, similar to the NBC reality show of the same name.

During this year's program, representatives from City Hall, the Mountain Home Police Department, the Elmore County Animal Shelter, Public Works and the Mountain Home Public Library.

Personal trainer Edie Corbus, group exercise instructor Sandy Bish and volunteer Sherene Vivier assisted Rhodes in weighing and measuring the 50 participants for this year's competition.

During the competition, each and every competitor were personally responsible for following their fitness and nutritional programs.

Rhodes also organized a six-week fitness boot camp at Fitness First, held every Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

"I think it went really well. We had 6-7 people there the entire time. It was kind of fun to put the whole boot camp on," said Rhodes.

The competitors were given various challenges during the event, which included guessing the amount of calories in a Big Mac super-sized meal from McDonalds. The winners of the contests received prizes ranging from gas cards to movie tickets.

Also during the competition, teams sent out various temptations to their opponents -- candy, cakes or doughnuts.

On Friday, April 24, Fitness First owner Sue Basabe and personal trainer Edie Corbus chose the winners based on body weight loss percentage.

Szafranski won the event by losing a total of 17.45% of her body weight. Shirley Batchelor from Public Works came in second with 15.38% and Crystal Anderson from Parks and Recreation came in third with 13.18%.

The top three finishers were presented their certificates by Mountain Home Mayor Tom Rist in a special ceremony at City Hall last Tuesday.

The top three finishers were also awarded with paid days off: two for Szafranski, one for Batchelor and a half day for Anderson.

The City Hall team won both the team spirit award for their 100% participation during the event and the overall team competition for the best total weight loss percentage (7.54%). Public Works came in second and the Mountain Home Police Department finished third.

In total, 38 competitors finished this year's program with a total of 363 pounds lost, which amounts to a 3.66 percentage of weight loss. In 2007, only 23 competitors finished the program with a total of 163 pounds lost.

For finishing this year's program, the 38 competitors are entitled to $25 in incentives from the city's wellness program, a program that was created to encourage city employees to have a healthy lifestyle and aid in the reduction of absenteeism, health insurance claims and increases in the city's medical rates.

Out of the 38 finishers, 24 competitors also qualified for the $110 incentive, by maintaining an exercise log for 90 days.

"I think it went really well, I'm very pleased with how it went. The city lost a good amount of weight and we had a lot of people getting healthy. I think they'll keep it up," said Rhodes.

The "Biggest Loser" is one of several free-of-charge activities put on by the city to help further reduce health care costs and absenteeism, those other incentives include: the city wide health fair, annual flu shots and cholesterol screenings.