From Thursday, June 8 through Saturday, June 10, 50 Birmingham-based businesses competed in the eight annual Corporate Challenge, presented by Hibbett | City Gear, at the West Homewood Athletic Complex. The event kicked off Thursday with dodgeball prelims and continued Friday at Oak Mountain Lanes for the bowling portion of the competition. Saturday, 1,715 participants from 50 businesses competed in various events and head-to-head competitions.
“This year’s Corporate Challenge event was one for the books,” said Summer Hall, Knight Eady Culture Director and Corporate Challenge Team Director. "Not only was it the biggest ever, in terms of the number of companies, but it was also the largest on a logistical scale. We added multiple new events, grew our footprint and created more engagement opportunities for companies. Between the strategy team promoting the event to both the general public and our participating companies, to our creative team hosting photoshoots for teams, creating signage, and building the visual identity of the brand, all the way to our operations team doing all event management to ensure everything runs smoothly, it's safe to say it's an all-hands-on-deck event. The fun doesn't stop there though, as we're already planning ways to make the 2024 Challenge better... Did someone say trivia?"
The 1,715 participants competed in over 4,800 events. Throughout the course of the event, there were 1,775 footballs thrown, 1,221 soccer balls kicked, 1,830 clubs swung, 855 hulas hooped, 762 dancers dancing, 679 home runs, 1,141 miles run, 1,221 miles walked and 800 miles cycled. In the ever-intense dodgeball competition, Brassfield and Gorrie took home the title in the D3 division with LIV Development claiming the D2 title and Gray Construction taking home the title in D1.
In addition to the athletic competition, companies earned points by fundraising for Redemptive Cycles, a Birmingham nonprofit that focuses on providing bikes as a reliable method of transportation to those in need. The event raised over $23,000 for Redemptive Cycles with Gray Construction raising the most for the organization.
After all the points were tallied, one company per division was crowned the 2023 Corporate Challenge Champions. Coming in first in the D1 division, Gray Construction! Gray Construction came in second place in 2022 and first in 2021, so they are no stranger to the awards podium. The D2 champion was the Ōnin Group. The Ōnin Group was a first-year team last year and came in third in 2022. Buffalo Rock came in first in the D1 division, similar to Gray Construction, Buffalo Rock came in second in 2022 and first in 2021, claiming their place back on top this year.
Companies can join the waitlist for 2024 online at www.bhamcorporatechallenge.com.
