Humana Chairman of the Board Mike McCallister, left, applauds as Brian Gay, 2013 Humana Challenge champion, lifts the Bob Hope Memorial Trophy at PGA West on January 20, 2013, in La Quinta, Calif. . (Rodrigo Pena / AP Images for Humana)

Brian Gay won the Humana Challenge on Sunday, beating Charles Howell III and Swedish rookie David Lingmerth in a three-man playoff at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif. It was the fourth PGA TOUR title for the 41-year-old Gay.

We congratulate Gay and thank the Clinton Foundation, PGA TOUR, Gary Player and all of the participants in the tournament and events held during the week of well-being, including the:

• Health Matters Conference
• KaBOOM! multigenerational playground build
• First Tee program and the
• Walkit Challenge.

Watch our latest video below as well as the week’s highlights in our video journal, and check back tomorrow to learn more about the inspirational Military Appreciation Day held this weekend in La Quinta.

Volunteers work together to build a multi-generational playground at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley, on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013, in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. (Gabriel Acosta / AP Images for Humana)

The Humana Challenge kicked off a week of well-being with several weekend events, including the Humana Well-being Walk, the Humana Family Fun Fair and Humana Day at the Certified Farmers’ Market. (Watch the video.)

The busy weekend started early Saturday when more than 200 volunteers joined The Humana Foundation, KaBOOM!, the Boys & Girls Club of Coachella Valley and the City of Desert Hot Springs to build a multigenerational playground. (Watch the video below.)

Visit www.humananews.com and @humananews on Twitter throughout the week to get the latest updates along with photos and videos as the Humana Challenge, in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, continues its mission of celebrating life, well-being and happiness of the heart, mind and soul.

The PGA TOUR golf tournament begins Thursday, Jan. 17.

Related links:

• Humana Challenge website
• @HumanaChallenge (Twitter)
• Humana Challenge Facebook
• Humana Challenge YouTube
• Media Day kicks off 2013 Humana Challenge
• Humana Military Outpost returns to Humana Challenge

Volunteers work together to build a one-of-kind, multigenerational playground at the Las Casas apartment complex in Coachella, Calif, on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012.

The swing of the first golf club may be a few weeks away, but the 2013 Humana Challenge is already teed up and off to an impressive start.

More than 100 people attended Humana Challenge media day on Dec. 5 at the tournament site in La Quinta, Calif.  “We’re thrilled by the enthusiasm the Humana Challenge has generated,” said Humana Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Tom Noland. “Everyone at Humana is looking forward to the opportunity to work with our partners to share Humana’s message of participatory well-being.”

Golf great Phil Mickelson announced he’ll return for a second consecutive year to the PGA TOUR event, which starts January 17 and is co-sponsored by Humana and the William J. Clinton Foundation. Mickelson’s 2012 Ryder Cup teammate Brandt Snedeker, currently ranked number nine in the world, will also compete, as will last year’s Humana Challenge champion Mark Wilson.

“Having Phil, Brandt and Mark on board already bodes well for the strength of our field again this year and provides further proof of the appeal of the event,” said Humana Challenge executive director and CEO Bob Marra.

“I’m honored to be the champion last year and to be back,” Wilson told the crowd. He shared the story of a local friend who attended last year’s tournament. “He took it upon himself after that tournament to walk 3,000 steps a day.  And he’s lost 70 pounds (and)… feels like he’s in the best shape of his life.” Wilson said his friend “really credits the Humana Challenge and what they did last year in improving awareness of the importance of exercise.”

This story is one of many examples of how the Humana Challenge is about much more than golf. At the 2012 tournament, Humana gave out pedometers with the promise that if spectators and visitors would log enough steps during the event, The Humana Foundation would donate $500,000 to local charities.  Participants met the challenge, and The Humana Foundation made the donation to the Family YMCA of the Desert and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley.  That contribution paved the way for the Dec. 1 construction of a multigenerational playground in the Las Casas apartment complex in nearby Coachella, Calif.

As with previous playgrounds that Humana has sponsored with KaBOOM!, the playground has elements of a traditional playground for kids but also includes features designed for adults, such as exercise stations and a walking track.

Constructed by more than 200 volunteers in less than six hours, the playground effort wowed observers like Martha Jimenez, who serves on the board of the Family YMCA of the Desert.  Jimenez told The Desert Sun newspaper, “So many people came out today and the impossible became possible.”

Las Casas is the first of two playgrounds Humana is helping construct in the area; the second will go up in January just before the opening of the Humana Challenge. Humana also provided funding for a new recreation facility at the San Felipe Community and Migrant Housing Complex in Oasis, Calif., earlier this year.

At the start of Humana Challenge week, the Clinton Foundation will host its second annual Health Matters: Activating Wellness in Every Generation conference, the anchor event for the Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI).  Among the expected attendees at the conference and the tournament are Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett (who will perform) and former President Bill Clinton.

The Humana Challenge was named 2012 Sports Event of the Year by Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily.

Humana takes a balanced approach in its efforts to create a golf event that’s both fun for players and fans and also serves to promote lifelong well-being.  Humana offers participants and spectators healthy food concessions, pedometers and a family fit area, among other features.

That balance is summarized in this quote from defending champion Wilson: “You’ve got to live well and enjoy life, but also be conscious of what is good for your performance.”

Related Links:

• Video: Playground built in advance of Humana Challenge
• Humana Challenge website
• Humana Challenge Twitter
• Press Release: Phil Mickelson to begin his PGA TOUR season at Humana Challenge for second straight year
• Video: Mirage in the desert – Building a Multigenerational Playground

Yvonne and Stephen Edwards were happy to be part of creating their new community resource.

“There have been times when this neighborhood was labeled as hopeless…this is hope realized,” said Yvonne Edwards, as she watched the final pieces go into place on a new playground at the Parkland Boys & Girls Club in Louisville, Ky. “It’s simply awesome. People with diverse lives – different ages, genders, culture, those from this community, from around Louisville and beyond – brought it all together.”

Yvonne, her husband, Stephen, and 300 other volunteers from the Parkland neighborhood, Humana and KaBOOM! gathered in an empty field on the morning of Oct. 16. By 3 p.m. that same afternoon, this diverse group of individuals had worked together as one team to create a unique community playground, garden and amphitheater.

“We are doing this for the children, but we all benefit,” said Stephen Edwards. “They will see what can be done. When an event touches our children, it touches our future.”

The Louisville playground is one of a growing number of play spaces that Humana, The Humana Foundation and KaBOOM! are building across the country. As part of a three-year alliance that extends a partnership formed in 2011, more than 50 playgrounds will be built across the United States over a four-year time frame.

The Parkland playground was the first to be built in Louisville and the first to be sponsored by The Humana Foundation. The Humana Foundation’s Remy Shu said the Parkland site was chosen after the Foundation presented a $25,000 grant to the Boys & Girls Club on behalf of Humana’s IMPACT African-American Network Resource Group. At that time, Shu said, the Foundation realized that the children in the area had no safe place to play. The Boys & Club itself was reopened only a month ago. The Foundation wanted to provide a community resource, such as the new intergenerational space, that could be used by children and adults to enhance their well-being, reconnect and build memories.

Current and former community members were happy to take part in creating something that they saw as a building block to a better future for a once-vibrant neighborhood that has fallen on tough economic times and has been the site of recent violence.

“I grew up around here, and used to come to this Boys & Girls Club, “said 44-year-old Rod Holt, a Humana associate and member of the IMPACT group who volunteered to help built the playground. “Used to play touch football right here. Facilities like this club and this playground will help give the kids who are growing up here now the opportunity to have a place to go where they can find an alternative to violence.”

Many of the children in the neighborhood showed their support for the project by participating in the Aug. 15 Design Day, where they worked together on a wish list and laid out their vision of what the perfect playground might look like. On Friday, Oct. 19, they will see how the ideas they drew on a piece of paper have become reality when the playground is officially opened during a community celebration at the club.

Related Videos and Articles

• In this video, the residents of the desert community of Thermal, Calif., who named their playground Mirage, explain what it means to them and how it helps build hope for healthier, happier days ahead.
• “Humana leaves a legacy in Charlotte, Tampa”: Humana and KaBOOM! built multigenerational playgrounds in the two host cities for the 2012 political conventions.

Volunteers celebrate during the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Gateway Park Apartments in Portland, Oregon.

More than 250 volunteers joined forces to build a multigenerational playground in six hours in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 22 as Humana and KaBOOM! kicked off their second annual fall playground tour in which they will build nine playgrounds in nine cities over the next nine weeks.

Residents of Gateway Park Apartments in northeast Portland had met weeks before to provide input and help design their new 1,710-square-foot playground, which features fitness stations, traditional kid-friendly equipment, walking paths and adult/senior stretch stations.

The playground will give children in this apartment community –who had been playing in a parking lot –a safe space to play. It also gives adults in the apartments a place to exercise.

The Portland playground is now included on a growing list of play spaces that Humana and KaBOOM! are building across the county. The playgrounds promote healthy play for people of all ages, but they also help families reconnect and create memories. Enthusiasm for these neighborhood legacies continues long after the day of the build.

“My family and I have continued to use this playground week after week since it was built last fall,” said Dorothy Jackson, of Midway, Fla., who frequents a playground Humana and KaBOOM! built last fall in Orlando, Fla. “The equipment has given me a reason to stay active and a safe place to play with my grandchildren—I love it!”

In addition to Portland, playgrounds will be built in Milwaukee, Wis.; Cleveland, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; South Charleston, W.Va.; Springfield, Mo.; Huntsville, Ala.; Baton Rouge, La., and Phoenix, Ariz. from Sept. 22 through Nov. 17.

Based in part on the success of their 2011 campaign—building eight playgrounds in eight cities in eight weeks—Humana and The Humana Foundation recently entered into a three-year alliance with KaBOOM!, running from 2012 through 2014. As part of the alliance, Humana, The Humana Foundation and KaBOOM! are now teaming up to build more than 50 playgrounds across the United States over a four-year time frame.

Additionally, The Humana Foundation is also sponsoring the KaBOOM! Playful City USA initiative, a program honoring cities and towns that make play a priority and use innovative approaches to get children active, playing, and healthy.

Related Videos and Articles

• In this video, the residents of the desert community of Thermal, Calif., who named their playground Mirage, explain what it means to them and how it helps build hope for healthier, happier days ahead.
• “Humana leaves a legacy in Charlotte, Tampa”: Humana and KaBOOM! built multigenerational playgrounds in the two host cities for the 2012 political conventions.
• This AARP blog, “The Shape of Things to Come: Adult Playground,” discusses the many benefits of the multigenerational playgrounds.

Participants in design day in Louisville display their sketches.

Dozens of children, their parents and other adult volunteers gathered at the Parkland Boys & Girls Club in Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 15 to compile a wish list for their own one-of-a-kind multigenerational playground and community garden that will be built on Oct. 16.

When a playground is being planned, who better to turn to for inspiration and design advice than children because as one of these “experts at play” pointed out, “We’re kids – we are better at it and have better ideas.” The enthusiasm for the task was evident as several participants such as Matteo Johnson, Jaquay Rodgers Jr.. Joshua Eddings, Javin Johnson, Na’Kiya Hall, and Darius Calloway, Jr., displayed their individual designs, which included typical playground equipment such as slides and monkey bars to water fountains, a rock-climbing wall and a trampoline.

The playgrounds are part of a continuing partnership between Humana, The Humana Foundation, and the nonprofit organization KaBOOM!, to create neighborhood legacies that promote healthy play and well-being. More than 50 playgrounds will be built by Humana and KaBOOM! across the U.S. over four years. Each playground has senior and adult-focused elements, such as fitness stations to promote good posture, balance and flexibility, as well as traditional kid-friendly equipment and areas where families can gather for picnics and reunions.

“We’re excited to be here today to be part of creating a safe place within walking distance for the children to play or families to gather,” said Jennifer Helgeson, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana. “This is an investment in the community and an incredible opportunity to create an outdoor space that is open to everyone of all ages – young and old – and encourages them to be active, have fun, enjoy the outdoors and gather as family and a community. It will be a place to create memories.”

Kenny Altenburg, of KaBOOM, led the design-day activities, and even though he said he has been involved with 40 playground builds around the country, he never fails to be inspired on the day of the build when he sees the excitement and pride of those in the community as they watch the ideas they put on paper become reality.

“People tell me that they’ve never been part of something like this and that they are meeting neighbors for the first time,” he said. “It is more than building a playground. It’s building pride in a community and a neighborhood. We’re all in this together.”

Related Videos and Articles

• Volunteers from Humana, KaBOOM! and the local community team up to build a multigenerational playground in Metairie, La.
• In this video, the residents of the desert community of Thermal, Calif., who named their playground Mirage, explain what it means to them and how it helps build hope for healthier, happier days ahead.
• This playground in Sanford, Fla., gives Midway Safe Harbor Community Center, a new way to actively demonstrate the benefits of an active lifestyle.
• This AARP  blog, “The Shape of Things to Come: Adult Playground,” discusses the many benefits of the multigenerational playgrounds.

The crowd of volunteers are ready for the ribbon to be cut after completing the playground in Charlotte.

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx has big dreams for his city.

With the upcoming Democratic National Convention (September 3-6) taking place in Charlotte, the mayor understands the national spotlight will be on his town. Beyond successfully executing the three-day event, Mayor Foxx has another goal in mind—ensuring the impact from the DNC will create long-term, sustainable change in Charlotte.

On Saturday, August 4, Humana contributed to this dream by building a multi-generational playground at the Village of Rosedale Apartments in Charlotte. Along with partners from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, Charlotte in 2012 and KaBOOM!, Humana teamed up to construct the playground and bring renewed inspiration for well-being to the local community.

More than 250 community volunteers built the multi-generational playground in one day, which includes both kid-friendly elements as well as activities targeted toward adults and seniors.

“When you make it possible for a young person to have a place to play, you make it possible for a young person to dream,” said Mayor Foxx about the playground build. “And when you make it possible for a young person to dream, you make it possible for a young person to achieve.”

In advance of the Republican National Convention (August 27-30) in Tampa, a playground was built on Aug. 11 in that city’s Ragan Park.

The new playgrounds in Charlotte and Tampa are part of the effort by Humana and KaBOOM! to build 18 playgrounds across the United States in 2012.

Tonja Wilson and her daughter Sarayah Drew, 5, work together on design day in Charlotte, N.C.

Residents of Tampa, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C., are designing their own unique multigenerational playgrounds, which will be built in conjunction with the Republican and Democratic national political conventions that will be held in those two cities this summer.

The playgrounds are part of a continuing partnership between Humana and the nonprofit organization KaBOOM!, to create neighborhood legacies that promote healthy play and well-being. Each playground has senior and adult-focused elements, such as fitness stations to promote good posture, balance and flexibility, as well as traditional kid-friendly equipment and areas where families can gather for picnics and reunions.

The first step in each of the playground builds is to bring children, seniors and other community members together to compile a wish list and design the elements that will make the space unique and best-suited to their own needs.

Tonja Wilson and her daughter Sarayah participated in Charlotte’s design day on June 12. “This park means a great deal to me because my family will be part of the hands-on experience,” said Wilson. “My daughter will be able to look back one day and show her children what a great project she was part of. This project is a great deal to the kids and seniors. It will be something that they will be proud of for the rest of their lives and to call their own.”

Carmen Fowler, community manager of The Village of Rosedale, where the Charlotte playground will be built on Aug. 4, said the close-knit community often holds social events. “The residents are excited for an area they can all enjoy as a family together,” she said. “The playground will be a wonderful addition.”

Tampa residents met on May 31 to design their customized playground, which will be built Aug. 11 at the Ragan Park Community Center in advance of the Republican National Convention, which will be held Aug. 27-30. The Democratic National Convention will be held Sept. 3-6 in Charlotte.

In addition to the playground builds, Humana is excited to be working in Tampa with the Republican National Convention, Host Committee team and Mayor Bob Buckhorn, as well as in Charlotte with the Democratic National Convention, Host Committee team and Mayor Anthony Foxx, to bring a new version of Humana’s Freewheelin’ program to the 2012 national political conventions. After plans are finalized with each city, Humana will announce details about the program, describing how convention visitors and local residents will be able to have fun, exercise and get around each downtown during the conventions utilizing the Humana Freewheelin’ program.

Related Videos

• Volunteers from Humana, KaBOOM! and the local community team up to build a multigenerational playground in Metairie, La.
• In this video, the residents of the desert community of Thermal, Calif., who named their playground Mirage, explain what it means to them and how it helps build hope for healthier, happier days ahead.
• This playground in Sanford, Fla., gives Midway Safe Harbor Community Center, a new way to actively demonstrate the benefits of an active lifestyle.

Mike McCallister and Bill Clinton watch the action at the 2012 Humana Challenge.

The 2012 Humana Challenge, in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, was named “Sports Event of the Year” at the fifth-annual Sports Business Awards in New York on Wednesday, May 23.

“Winning “Sports Event of the Year” is an unbelievable honor for the Humana Challenge,” said Mike McCallister, Humana Chairman and CEO. “It really speaks to the commitment of our partners and the Coachella Valley community in making this event successful. We were also proud that spectators, fans and viewers rallied around our dream of helping people achieve lifelong well-being that we and the Clinton Foundation worked to emphasize throughout the tournament. We’re humbled by the success of the event and will continue to instill healthy activities throughout the years to come.”

(more…)

Susanne Haehlen, winner of the Humana “Build a Family Legacy” sweepstakes

Are you someone who’s never won anything in your life?

So was Susanne Haehlen, a retired art teacher living in Marion, Iowa. That is until she entered the Humana “Build a Family Legacy” sweepstakes. Through this initiative, Humana invited families across America to enter a sweepstakes to win a unique prize – a custom-designed multi-generational playground constructed near their hometown.

When DeDe Eschen, Susanne’s daughter, first heard about the Humana sweepstakes, she was immediately motivated to get her family to enter. In fact, for three years she and the nearby community of Alburnett had been raising money for a new playground in their sports complex, but with a number of other priorities, including constructing a softball field and running track, the playground was a distant dream.

That is until her mother, Susanne, won the “Build a Family Legacy” sweepstakes.

To make this dream come true, Humana, KaBOOM!,the Alburnett Community School District Foundation and volunteers joined forces Saturday, May 12, to build a one-of-a-kind playground in the Alburnett Martin Sports Complex. The customized playground was built in six hours and features senior-focused and adult elements, such as fitness stations and walking paths – as well as more traditional, kid-friendly equipment.

In addition, Susanne and her family won a professionally catered reunion at the multi-generational playground following its construction, truly epitomizing the goal of building a family legacy. Just ask DeDe, who proudly said, “This is only the beginning of what is yet to come for Alburnett.”

Humana believes in the power of personal relationships and that enjoying life to the fullest at any stage should be a reality for all. Through its ongoing partnership with KaBOOM!, the company continues to foster strong communities by creating playgrounds for all generations to stay healthy and active.