The women in the business office dominated the inaugural puzzle competition, completing their puzzle at least three minutes before the other teams. Heidi Hass, Ashlee Kerekes, and Julie Petro won a certificate, bragging rights, and a prize at lunch time for their victory. Heidi said that she “never knew that putting jigsaw puzzles together could be competitive, a group sport, [and] so much fun,” and Julie mentioned that her “competitive spirit came out just the same as any team sport.” Ashlee described the competition as “the perfect metaphor for Team UPJ! Every person on a team is piece of the puzzle!” Ashlee continued, every day at UPJ we rise, “to the challenge and [come] together to complete the bigger picture.”
Dawn Miller knew a lot of staff members who liked to put together puzzles, so she invented a way to turn it into a team sport for UPJ Day. First, she removed the puzzle from the box so no one knew what it looked like; but to make it even harder, she placed a few pieces from every puzzle in the wrong bag. Miller thinks that the activity was successful mainly because it was a bit chaotic and interactive. “Everyone was running around to other tables looking for their missing puzzle pieces and laughing” stated Miller.
The winning team consisting of Hass, Kerekes, and Petro.