Olympic great Jesse Owens called the friendships he forged as an athlete “the real gold of competition.” Among local supporters of United Way, competition brings an added benefit: more people getting involved to change the story in our region.

Several communities and organizations are upping the stakes in their workplace campaigns by competing with others. The challenges are friendly—like the contest between Vicksburg and Gull Lake that we reported on earlier—and the payoff is positive impact.

Like the Gull Lake/Vicksburg competition, the cities of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo challenged each other to increase employee participation in their workplace campaigns. For the community that comes in second place, officials will have to appear before the winner’s city commission clad in that city’s promotional clothing to read a resolution from their own commission honoring the victor as well as appear in the holiday parade of the first-place community.

“This is a fun approach to supporting United Way while celebrating the generous spirit of employees in both communities,” said Rebecca Fleury, Battle Creek’s city manager.

“We’re getting more people engaged in each city while making a big impact together on the region’s greatest challenges,” added Jim Ritsema, city manager in Kalamazoo.

A similar contest is happening between two Kalamazoo companies—Pfizer Inc. and Stryker Corp. Over the years, each has held the crown of largest corporate contributor based in Kalamazoo County. For 2015, they challenged each other for bragging rights for highest employee participation rate. Also, both companies engaged their senior leaders in a Day of Caring project to generate more excitement.

All three competitions underscore the real gold of positive change in our region: people willing to work together in fun, creative ways toward a shared vision.