Stepping Up for Good with HARMAN
Originally published on HARMAN Newsroom
Supporting our employees’ health and wellbeing is of the utmost importance to HARMAN. That’s why our HARMAN Global Wellbeing team challenged our employees to a step contest through Charity Miles, the organization that empowers people to make an impact for charity whenever they walk, run, or bike. With the support of our HARMAN Inspired global cause initiative, the three employees with the most steps logged at the end of the month-long competition had the opportunity to symbolically adopt and support an animal of their choice on the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) endangered species list.
Colin, Product Marketing Manager, Video & Control, HARMAN Professional Solutions, emerged as one of the top three contributors in our HARMAN Inspired Charity Miles Year End Step Challenge! As a result, HARMAN made a donation is his name to symbolically adopt the Mexican Gray Wolf. In honor of World Wildlife Day on March 3rd, we asked Colin how he stayed motivated through the step challenge and why giving back is important to him…
Q: How do Charity Miles and HARMAN’s Global Wellbeing program inspire you?
A: Sometimes, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with work or personal responsibilities and feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. I like that the Charity Miles app and other tools in the Global Wellbeing program help make it easy for me to carve out at least a little time from my busy schedule to focus on my physical and emotional health. I feel inspired when I look at all the names of my peers and colleagues on the Charity Miles leaderboard as well as all the different activities that are logged, at all times of day from all around the world, because it makes me feel like we’re truly part of a team. Plus, the fact that taking my dog, Ava, on a walk helps support a charity is an amazing bonus!
Q: Through our donation, you chose to symbolically adopt a Mexican Gray Wolf through the World Wildlife Fund. Why did you choose this animal?
A: It was a tough choice because, of course, all animals are important – and most of them are pretty adorable! Ultimately, I chose to support the Mexican Gray Wolf because it’s one of the few animals that live near me in Arizona. I also did some research and found that, thanks to the U.S. Endangered Species Act and support from organizations like the WWF, repopulation efforts for Mexican Gray Wolves have made a lot of progress for the species overall. Hopefully, it won’t be long before the wild population of these wolves is self-sustaining and they can be removed from the endangered species list altogether.
Q: How did you stay motivated during the step challenge?
A: It was fortunate for me that this challenge happened to take place in December because it was a particularly beautiful month here in Arizona! In addition to logging my daily (at least!) walks with Ava, I put it a lot of miles training on my bike. I definitely worked a bit harder knowing that I had a chance to be in the top three. I have a big race coming up soon and I’m going to need all the fitness I can get – so thank you to everyone at HARMAN for the extra motivation!
Our employees around the world all share a passion for supporting the communities where we work and live. To learn more about our teams’ efforts to give back and support our communities through HARMAN Inspired, visit: https://www.harman.com/inspired
