CHALLENGES

#1: In order to be an effective manger you’ll need to be able to handle stressful situations and make clear-headed decisions. Today is World Meditation Day, a holiday intended to create awareness about meditation and its benefits. Get your team to Revive Wellness (119 Harry Street) and find the meditation checkpoint set up outside. A trained meditation instructor will guide your team through a short meditation program. At some point during your visit have the instructor take a picture of your team. This checkpoint is required and will be open from 5:45pm to 6:45pm. If you arrive and another group is already there you can wait a few minutes for them to finish (and quietly discuss strategy), or go do a different challenge and come back within the designated time frame.

Connection Question For Challenge #1

#2: May is National Military Appreciation Month, a time to honor those who are serving or have served in the U.S. military. Anywhere around the area find an active military person or a veteran. Then take a video of them watching your entire team doing 10 push-ups, sit-ups or jumping jacks at their feet to honor their strength and courage. After you’ve finished recording, spend a few minutes learning more about their time in the service before you depart, as a small gesture of appreciation.

Connection Question For Challenge #2

#3: Some of the most important skills for a manager to have are the ability to communicate effectively and work together with others towards a common goal. These skills will also help you successfully complete this challenge. Get to any intersection with a traffic light. Have someone take a video of your team as everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder in a tight clump/circle with your backs all facing in and your arms interlocked. When the light turns green slowly lower the entire interlocked group to the ground until you are in a seated position with your butts on the ground. Then work together to slowly stand all the way back up while remaining interlocked the entire time. To successfully complete the challenge, your entire interlocked team needs to be standing up again before the traffic light in the background changes to red. To watch a video of a group performing this maneuver click HERE.

Connection Question For Challenge #3

#4: Anywhere around the area, take a video of your group members all at the same time consuming separate spoonfuls of any brand of hot sauce (the hotter the better). Make sure to show the bottle or packet of hot sauce in the video so everyone knows that it's actually hot sauce you're consuming. Disclaimer, this will likely not be pleasant, which is exactly the point. Because a group that suffers together, grows together.

Connection Question For Challenge #4

#5: The first volunteer fire company was started right here in Philadelphia by Ben Franklin. Soon after, more and more fire companies spread across the city and all over the country. To celebrate this city’s historical impact on fire fighting, and honor the brave firefighters that protect this community, take a video of your team completing "Stop, Drop, and Roll" while any regulation/operable fire extinguisher is visible in the background, or you are standing in front of an actual fire station. Be sure to yell each step of the fire safety technique as you all do it together and make sure the fire extinguisher or fire station is clearly visible at some point in your video.

Connection Question For Challenge #5

#6: Find a postcard that features this area in some way, or a fun greeting card, and purchase it. Then click HERE to go to the Love For Our Elders project, which is focused on fighting loneliness with love, one letter at a time. As a team, choose someone from their list whose story or background resonates with you. Then on your card include a fun or uplifting message and sign it. Take a picture with it to show you've completed your Act Of Kindness and then at some point along the way or after your event ends stamp it and drop it in the mail.

Connection Question For Challenge #6

#7: The Eagles’ NFL schedule was just released and expectations are high for a season that ends with another Super Bowl ring! Anywhere around town find a logo of the Eagles proudly being displayed, worn, flown, etc. Then take a video of your group pretending to spike an imaginary football and immediately breaking into your very best celebratory touchdown dance, doing the Eagles chant, or singing the fight song while the logo is clearly visible in the background. If you need some inspiration for your touchdown celebration you can click HERE.

Connection Question For Challenge #7

#8: We recently celebrated Mother’s Day, thanks to Anna Jarvis from Philadelphia who created the concept in the early 1900’s. But letting the women in our lives know they are loved should happen throughout the year. Take a video of your team members hugging or high-fiving any female who is pushing a stroller around town as you give her words of encouragement such as "we believe in you", "you're awesome", "you're doing a great job", etc. Make sure your video shows the stroller at some point, although the child doesn’t need to be recorded. Then afterwards, have each team member send a private text message to a woman in their lives who had a significant impact on shaping who they are today.

Connection Question For Challenge #8

#9: When you think of the “first flight,” it’s Wilbur and Orville Wright on the dunes of North Carolina. However, the true first manned flight over North America took place over 230 years ago from downtown Philadelphia, across the Delaware River, to a field in New Jersey via a balloon while the founding father’s watched from below. To celebrate this city’s place in aviation history, take a video of your team completing the "Paper Airplane Challenge". Basically send some team members to the 2nd level of any building, balcony, or parking garage and have them toss paper airplanes out into the air in front of them (not just dropping it straight downward). The rest of your team should be on the ground level below. Any of your team members at ground level need to catch just one plane before it hits the ground. All team members at ground level can be attempting to catch planes, but only one plane needs to be caught.

Connection Question For Challenge #9

#10: Today is National American Red Cross Founder’s Day, honoring the impactful organization that Civil War nurse Clara Barton brought to the US. To celebrate the legacy she created, find any official Red Cross emblem around the area. Once you’ve found one, designate one of your teammates as an “injured soldier”. Then take a picture demonstrating the “correct way to carry an injured soldier”, as referenced in the picture found HERE by soldiers from the 1800’s. If you have a lot of people on your team you can divide up and carry multiple “victims” if you want. Or if you have a small team you can recruit strangers to help out if needed. Make sure the Red Cross emblem is visible somewhere in your picture and then gently lower your victim back down after you’re finished, just like Clara would have done.

Connection Question For Challenge #10

#11: Being able to focus while surrounded by distractions is a skill that will help you succeed in management. This challenge will test how well you can do that. Click HERE to get to the brain puzzles and then select “Memory”. Then, anywhere along the way have at least two team members achieve a score of 50 or more points. Once you have your two super focused teammates, take a celebratory picture of them while they’re displaying their phone screens and the point totals are clearly visible. If needed, you can take an additional close-up picture of the two devices to clearly show the point totals (for bragging purposes of course).

Connection Question For Challenge #11

#12: Hajoca is proud to be a diverse family with a unique blend of cultures, histories and traditions! One of the best ways to build a community like this is to listen to each other and understand the stories that make everyone who they are. Take a video of your team and any stranger that has a tattoo while they explain what that tattoo means to them or why they got it. The tattoo must be visible at some point during the video.

Connection Question For Challenge #12

#13: Working for the nation’s largest privately held wholesale distributer of plumbing, heating and industrial supplies you all have likely used Scotch Tape for just about everything. Well, except this. To honor this incredibly versatile American-made product take a fun team picture after everyone uses Scotch tape to dramatically stretch and distort their faces. To create the proper distortion you’ll need at least 5 pieces of tape per face, although the more the better! For some inspiration click HERE.

Connection Question For Challenge #13

#14: Anywhere around the area, find an establishment that has an animal in it's name and take a fun team picture or video with everyone posing or acting like that specific animal while the establishment’s signage is clearly visible in the background. Please note you’re looking for a place with the animal in it’s actual name such as "The Friendly Giraffe" and not a place that lists an animal as something that is served there such as "Joe’s Fresh Fish".

Connection Question For Challenge #14

#15: Earlier this month was both National Nail Day and National Lemonade Day! When Alexandra “Alex” Scott was just four years old, she created a lemonade stand in her front yard and held her first childhood cancer fundraiser. That day she raised $2,000! She continued to host lemonade stands throughout her community here in the suburbs of Philadelphia and by the time of her death in 2004, Alex raised over $1 million and inspired a legacy of hope and cures for childhood cancer. To honor those, and their families, who are impacted by childhood cancer, take a proud group picture showing off your hands once every member of your group has gotten their fingernails painted bright yellow (the international color for childhood cancer awareness) using real nail polish. For every team that completes this challenge successfully and emails us the photo proof, our company (Team Building Anywhere) will be donating $25 to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation!

Connection Question For Challenge #15