Each September we have CCAH’s annual spirit week, but this year, spirit week went virtual! This fun-filled employee appreciation week included a lunch hour at the Charlie Hides Funhouse, a team-vs.-team MadLib competition, and our annual award ceremony (this year held over Zoom).
Each day had its own treats and surprises in addition to our weeklong Guess Who game, where employees were challenged to match fun facts with new staff, and the correct answers were revealed at our Thursday happy hour … it was such a fun way to get to know our fellow coworkers!
Monday
CCAH was closed for Labor Day, but we could hardly wait to return to the (home) office to kick off the spirit week festivities.
Tuesday
It was Mad Lib day! This fun team-vs.-team competition encouraged people to think outside the box as they completed a CCAH-themed MadLib! Teams worked together to come up with the zaniest nouns, adjectives, and verbs they could to impress the judges with their creativity. We also kicked off our New Staff Guess Who game, where everyone worked to match fun facts with the employee who has done it. With facts ranging from a fear of frogs to a world-class ranking on Pokémon Go, to speaking about fundraising on six continents; we’ve certainly hired some pretty interesting people during the pandemic!
Wednesday
For our lunch hour, we brought back Charlie Hides with a brand new gameshow: Charlie’s Funhouse! Staff members went head to head to win fun prizes in a variety of games: the Price is Right (but only with UK food items with interesting names), Name that Tune, and the Masked Celebrity, to name a few. Not everyone was a winner, but we all walked away with a smile after an hour in the funhouse!
Thursday
At happy hour, we kicked off the festivities with a scavenger hunt. Employees rans around their houses and apartments trying to be the first to find a particular item — from something red to something with a face — we had 15 seconds to find our items and run back to the screen before time was up!
From there, employees were recognized — from plaques for those celebrating two years with the company to CCAH monogramed swag gifts for those working here for five, ten, twenty, and twenty-five years.
Quentin Patrick received the Bill Goldstein Legacy Award for his twenty years with the firm. This award recognizes excellence in service and a commitment to outstanding loyalty to CCAH, our clients, and their missions. Twenty years symbolizes a remarkable achievement in one’s career and demonstrates fortitude, grit, and perseverance. Over the years, Bill Goldstein’s work had profound impact on some of the most critical issues facing our country and people around the globe. We are proud to honor his legacy with this award.
Katie Chambers received the coveted CCAH Spirit Award. This award goes to one individual, voted on by the management committee and partners, who we believe embodies dedication to clients and their fellow colleagues, always lending a helping hand and jumping in if someone doesn’t understand. Katie goes the extra mile for a client with a positive attitude and a smile in every situation. As one person noted, her “positive attitude is actually infectious for everyone she works with.” Congratulations to Katie Chambers for this distinction!
The Spirit Committee judges also announced the answers to the Guess Who matching game! While only five CCAH employees were able to get a perfect score (congrats to Arwen, Kahla, Srikar, Julia, and me—Becca!), everyone was a winner when we got to learn more about our coworkers.
Friday
Spirit week was finally coming to a close, but not without one final announcement: we changed our name! Jenny Allen officially became a name partner, making our company now Chapman Cubine Allen + Hussey — you can read all about it here if you missed the announcement blog. With this exciting news top of everyone’s mind, it was easy to forget about the MadLib competition (even though that was also a very exciting moment in CCAH history). Team Mia took home the win, and all of the bragging rights that came with it.
As a final surprise, everyone was excited to find goody bags at their door the week after spirit week. MJ, Katie, and Quentin had worked tirelessly to ensure a sweet snack for all of our employees even though we were far apart.
With that, we closed another wonderful week at CCAH. Now we are back to work, refreshed and ready to take on Q4 and another full year of doing great work for all our amazing clients!
As the number of seniors in our country increases, so does the rate of seniors at risk for hunger. More than 10 million older adults are at risk of hunger every day, many right here in the DMV area. The more than 1 million meals packed by volunteers this week went directly to hungry seniors in Washington DC. A day of “work” simply scooping, measuring, and packaging meals (depending on your position on the assembly line) will directly impact members of our community, and we think that’s AWESOME.
