Over the past few weeks the staff on NDC’s 5th floor have been sporting an Amaryllis growing competition.

This all started back in October when I sent a little email around to see who might be up for some friendly competition and raising a beautiful plant (a great distraction over the cold winter months). Not long after that 14 staff chipped in $10 dollars and 14 Amaryllis’s were bought and planted.

The objective of this competition was to see who’s plant would be the tallest and who would be voted best dressed by Dec 16th. There was intermittent measuring and smack talk was encouraged.

Within a week all of our departments (Staff Learning & Development, Sustainability, Nursing, Environmental Safety and Health, Developmental Learning, Research and Planning, the Recycling Team and Recognition of Prior Learning) were mingling, popping in to see the plants and of course sizing up the competition.

By Dec 16 plants that started at 4 cm were now 50-60 cm with beautiful red blooms. When it came time to pick our winners, our celebrity judges, Nancy Alexander and Lori Grandmont, had a very difficult time selecting only two.  They chose the “McHansen” from Nursing as the tallest plant and “Jorge” from Staff Learning and Development for best dressed.

At the end of the day we all walked away with a beautiful plant, a few more friends that we got know on our floor, and the experience of sharing in some great RRC team spirit.