The University’s Employee Appreciation Week took place on campus last week and emphasized helping the community and the state at-large, and donned the motto, “N.C. State Employees – Caring about North Carolina.”
Although students’ presence was sparse due to spring break, the events of EAW Monday included a blood drive that brought out a REX bloodmobile and rewarded each donor with two tickets to Raleighwood Cinema Grill, as well as the program’s fourth annual photography contest.
The bloodmobile received 39 donations of blood, the Food Bank of Eastern and Central N.C. obtained two large tubs of nonperishable food items, and the Literacy Council of Wake County acquired over 300 books.
The photography contest brought in 69 photographs that faculty and staff took from all over the University, according to Roxie Shevack, business office administrative support specialist and chair of the EAW photography contest.
“There is a lot of talent on campus,” Shevack said.
The photography contest, hosted at the McKimmon Center, brought out about 40 employees. But over 1000 people walked through the photo gallery, where all the contest photographs were displayed, during the Employee Appreciation Day and Benefit Fair on Tuesday, according to Shevack.
The most attended event, the Employee Appreciation Day and Benefit Fair brought out 2500 – 3000 employees, according to Rob Stevenson, Human Resources employee recognition program manager and chair of EAW 2007.
Two buses and several vans transported faculty and staff to and from the McKimmon Center during the 4-hour event.
While there, employees roamed among seven rooms, including the photo gallery, an N.C. State Wellness room, an Innovations at N.C. State room and a N.C. State Relaxes room, according to the EAW 2007 Web site.
Employees helped themselves to 45 vendors, pizza, Chick-fil-A sandwiches and live entertainment, all of which were free due to the six-day event sponsorships from the local community.
“Because of a little innovation and attitude, [the EAW committee] was able to make [the event] free to employees,” Stevenson said.
This is the first year these benefits were offered free of charge to University faculty and staff since the program moved from being held on one day to occurring over an entire week starting in 2001.
Some employees took advantage of free admission at the NCSU v. N.C. A&T baseball game at Doak Field Wednesday and made canned food donations.
Many also participated in the “Race for Literacy,” which featured a two-mile Fun Run and one-mile Fitness Walk at the lower Miller Intramural Fields Thursday and collected children’s books for charity.
The employee appreciation program took place during spring break because “students were away from campus,” and employees who work closely with students daily, like University Housing and University Dining staff, could get away to attend, according to Stevenson.
According to Stevenson, plans are already under way for EAW 2008.
“We try to improve it every year, that’s our goal,” Stevenson said.
