Don’t miss out! Join Drake HR and All Staff Council on Wednesday, May 19, at noon for Produce for Wellness. This one-hour virtual interactive event from Capital City Fruit, includes a free box of produce, delivered to your home or office, for you to use during the session.

During this class, participants will be given tips on produce nutrition, storage and handling, and fun facts to help you get the most out of nature’s best. You will also have the chance to create your own easy and nutritious recipe with produce provided by Capital City Fruit.

To register for this class, send an email to linda.feiden@drake.edu.  Please include your name, address (where to send ingredients), phone, email and allergies to ingredients—strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and protein powder.

Produce boxes will be shipped to you the day prior to the session so make sure you list the address you would like it sent to as your shipping address when registering – i.e. home address or office address.

Deadline to register is Tuesday, May 11, or as soon as all the spots are filled. Space is limited to 25 participants so you will want to reserve your spot today.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

This is your last chance to join the Walk this May team step challenge.

This team challenge will run through the month of May. A kick-off meeting will be held via Zoom on April 30 for all participants. Team captains will report weekly step totals and participants will receive motivational emails, including an update on team points. At the end of the month, there will be a challenge celebration via Zoom with a prize package awarded to the participants of the winning team.

You may register as a team of four or five people or register individually and you will be placed on a team. To register, send an email to linda.feiden@drake.edu with your team members (or just yourself if registering alone) by April 28.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

We often hear about the medical benefits of receiving a vaccine. But, receiving the COVID-19 vaccine has benefits that go across multiple dimensions of wellbeing.

Physical benefits. According to the CDC, the COVID-19 vaccine will help keep you from getting COVID-19. Based on current data, experts believe getting a COVID-19 vaccine also helps keep you from getting seriously ill, even if you do get COVID-19. Getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, particularly those at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Getting vaccinated is a great way to keep you, your family, and your community safe.

Social benefits. Once you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing more.  For example, you can gather in a home or private setting without masks with other people who are fully vaccinated. This is the first step in re-establishing those in-person connections that are so important in our lives. The more folks we get vaccinated, the more in-person social connections we can make!

Emotional and mental health benefits. No area of wellbeing has taken a bigger hit this past year than our emotional and mental health. The pandemic has created overwhelming stress. When we experience prolonged stress, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel becomes imperative for recovery. Receiving the vaccine is a way to reclaim hope and find some “normalcy” in our lives again.

Financial benefits. The financial hit from COVID-19 was felt by most across the country and world. Unemployment rates increased, fewer people ventured out to spend money which resulted in businesses closing, retirement accounts were affected, and the law of supply and demand escalated prices on goods and services. It will take a while for our economy to bounce back, but the sooner we get people vaccinated, the sooner we can restore our confidence and increase our economic activity.

As many have said, battling COVID-19 has been a marathon, not a sprint. In a marathon, some runners “hit the wall” as they near the last leg of the race, feeling fatigued and stopping or slowing to a walk. We are at that point in this pandemic. We can see the finish line. We have the tools to get there. But we need to keep going, get the vaccine and cross the finish line. It will take all of us to get there.

All Iowans 16 and older are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The University strongly encourages any member of the Drake community who qualifies for immunization to receive it as soon as possible.

If you have questions about the vaccine, good informational resources can be found at the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccination FAQ, Wellmark.com/Coronavirus, or the Wellmark Blue article, “Questions about the Covid-19 Vaccine.”

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources