October 22, 2008

A County employee who created and shepherded a fun and healthy program that was a portion of an overall Catawba County Wellness effort has been named the County’s 2008 Employee Of The Year for making the program a major success. Avajean Wickes, Executive Assistant to Catawba County Manager Tom Lundy, received the honor at the County’s Annual Awards Night Banquet at the CVCC Multipurpose Facility on October 21. She was selected by the County’s Employee Committee, which has representatives from every County department.

“Avajean Wickes was instrumental to the success of the Catawba County Spring Heart Fitness Challenge which was completed in March 2008,” said County Clerk Barbara Morris, who nominated Wickes for the Award. “While the County’s Wellness Committee was the originating and oversight authority for the Challenge, Avajean’s dedication to the implementation, orchestration, documentation and completion of an organized, enjoyable, competitive and effective program was paramount in making the Challenge a success!”

“Avajean’s enthusiasm for and commitment to healthy lifestyles and wellness was exhibited in her efforts in researching a program that had originally been conducted in Mecklenburg County,” Morris continued. “That program was expanded and improved upon to result in Catawba County’s version, which proved to be a huge success. While Mecklenburg’s participation totaled approximately 5% of their workforce, Catawba County had 350 participants in 70 teams, which equates to approximately 27% of our workforce! This was not a chance happening – but one that resulted from Avajean’s encouraging e-mails, fostering of healthy competition among departments, and great suggestions for exercise opportunities throughout the day.”

Officially known as the “Team Up for Heart Fitness Challenge”, the program encourages Catawba County employees to improve their cardiovascular health by forming teams of five people. Individuals choose activities that fit their lifestyle while they join with team members to earn points for exercising. Employees were encouraged to select activity with a moderate-intensity, meaning exercise in which the employee should experience some increase in breathing and/or heart rate, but be able to carry on a conversation comfortably while engaging in the activity. Recommended activity included walking, jogging, cycling, skating, swimming, dancing, basketball, exercise classes, exercise videos, weight training and rowing.

Employees were given sheets to track their exercise and points earned. They accumulated individual and team minutes for dedicated exercise individually or with two other members of a team. Exercise periods of at least 15 minutes count, but employees recorded all minutes of exercise. Individuals and teams that achieved certain levels of points were rewarded with prizes, such as pedometers and other equipment to promote future exercise, and healthy snacks. Awards and trophies in categories such as Best Team Name, Most Team Minutes and Most Individual Minutes were presented at the closing of the spring Heart Fitness Challenge. A fall Challenge is currently underway.

“It was great to get e-mails from Avajean to hear the latest amusing team name or her suggestion to go to the Challenge site on our intranet to view the humorous and innovative team photos,” Morris sad. “Since this was a new project and data bases and shortcuts had yet to be identified and perfected, Avajean spent numerous hours entering participants times, interpreting and clarifying hundreds of handwritten entries, fielding untold numbers of phone calls on what constituted an activity for points and answering e-mails regarding teams standings. I was witness to stacks of time entry sheets that needed to be entered and heard her answer the same questions over and over again as team leaders or individuals sought her guidance.”

“I never saw or heard impatience or frustration as she dealt with the overwhelming time commitment to the Challenge without missing a step in her already demanding workload and her outstanding capability of keeping the County Manager’s Office running smoothly,” Morris concluded. “Her enthusiasm for the Challenge was infectious and she seemed like a proud parent as employees got caught up in all aspects of the Challenge and changed fitness habits with teamwork, laughter and smiles. She was thrilled when survey results indicated that employees who hadn’t been exercising were now trying it. Those who exercised prior to the Challenge had increased the frequency and duration of their routines and the recruiting of fitness teams had introduced new friends and cemented old friendships. Above all, Avajean was so pleased that what resulted from the Wellness Committee’s effort was healthier Catawba County employees and, because of this initial program’s success, the door was open for more Challenges and opportunities to motivate and encourage fitness and wellness in our workplace.”

Avajean Wickes began working for Catawba County in 1990 as an Administrative Assistant to County Manager Tom Lundy. Her basic duties involve assisting the County Manager with day-to-day scheduling and insuring that the flow of communication between the County Manager and citizens and staff is efficiently managed. She also serves as Office Manager for the County Manager’s Office, handling the budgeting and financial matters of that office. She has also been involved in planning for a variety of special programs and events related to staff development and enrichment.

A native of Hickory, Wickes is a graduate of Hickory High School. She worked as a Legal Secretary for Newton-based attorney Thomas W. Warlick from 1979 until she went to work for Catawba County in late 1990. She earned an Associates in Applied Science Degree in Business Administration from Catawba Valley Community College in 2006 and has taught classes in word processing at CVCC. She and her husband, Scott Wickes, live in the Mountain View area with daughter, Melissa Noah. Other children include a son, Zach Wickes, and daughters Christie Wickes, Candace Wickes and Scottie Skluzacek, along with her husband Steve and their daughter (Avajean Wickes’s granddaughter), one-year-old Savannah.

Eighteen Catawba County employees were nominated for the Employee of the Year honor for 2008. Other nominees included: Shannon Bowers, Office Support Specialist, Public Health; Ossie Burkeen, Deputy, Sheriff's Office; Julie Byrd, Nutrition Supervisor, Public Health; Lynne Carpenter, Deputy, Sheriff's Office; Tami Hefner, Social Work Program Manager, Social Services; Marilyn Klinger, Administrative Assistant II, Public Health; Chantae Lail, Medical Lab Manager, Public Health; Tonya Moss, Charge Nurse I, Public Health; Catherine Nelson, Outpatient Therapist II, Social Services; Vada Nixon, Social Worker II, Public Health; Kathy Odom, Income Maintenance Supervisor, Social Services; Wanda Rozzelle, Library Services Specialist II, Library; Kendra Shaw, Charge Nurse II, Public Health; Rhonda Stikeleather, Charge Nurse II, Public Health; Randy Townsend, Co-Generation Supervisor, Utilities and Engineering; Christina Triplett, Protective Services Social Worker, Social Services; Jennifer Tuttle, Public Health Nurse, Public Health.

Another highlight of the evening was the presentation of the 2008 Team Awards. "We began giving Team Awards in 1994 to honor groups of employees whose combined efforts improve County services," said County Manager Tom Lundy, who served as Master of Ceremonies for the County's Awards Night. "We have always appreciated the value of work done by groups of employees who focus their energies on a common goal."

A panel of judges in the government field, independent of Catawba County, selected two Team Award winners for 2008. The first, in alphabetical order, is the Children’s Advocacy Center Of Catawba County’s Multi-Disciplinary Team.  This team consists of professionals from the Department of Social Services, law enforcement, District Attorney’s Office, medical and mental health areas, victims’ advocacy, sex offender treatment therapist, and the Children’s Advocacy Council. The team employed a coordinated response to the investigation, treatment and prosecution of child sexual abuse cases, and works to reduce the stress on child victims that is often created by the very systems that were meant to protect them.

In the early 1990s, Catawba County recognized a major service gap regarding investigation of child sexual abuse cases. State law requires that Social Services investigate any report of child sexual abuse when the alleged offender is a member of the family. But if the allegations are against someone outside of the family, the responsibility lies solely with law enforcement. Prior to the establishment of this team, child victims of sexual abuse were subject to multiple, redundant interviews about their abuse by different agencies and were questioned by professionals who had no knowledge of children’s developmental limitations. Child interviews took place in settings like police stations that would further stress already frightened children. Investigations were hindered because multiple agencies needed to be involved but did not coordinate their investigations.

The team developed a coordinated response to the investigation, treatment and prosecution of child sexual abuse cases, which has increased the effectiveness of investigations and reduces stress for children and non-offending family members. Interviews with children now take place at the Children’s Advocacy Center, which provides a comfortable, private, child-friendly setting that is both physically and psychologically safe for children. During the past year, 190 children were interviewed and these methods have proven to decrease the trauma associated with the investigative process, reduce anxiety over medical exams, provide trauma focused therapy and resulted in 38 cases referred for prosecution with 13 pleas and four guilty verdicts.

Members of the Children’s Advocacy Center Of Catawba County’s Multi-Disciplinary Team are: Adrienne Opdyke, Victim’s Advocate, Children’s Advocacy Center; Elizabeth R. Osbahr, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Children’s Advocacy Center; Stephanie Key, Child Protective Services Investigator, Social Services; Jessica Reitzel, Treatment Worker, Social Services; Thomas Neff, Child Protective Services Investigator, Social Services; Jason Hughes, Child Protective Services Investigator, Social Services; Christina Triplett, Treatment Worker, Social Services; Amber Morris, Investigator, Sheriff’s Office; David Eckard, Investigator, Sheriff’s Office; Eric Sipe, Sex Offender Treatment Therapist, Catawba Valley Behavioral Healthcare, Dawn Tutterow, Assistant District Attorney, District Attorney’s Office; Thea Heldermann, Victim’s Witness Coordinator, District Attorney’s Office and Heather McNally, Investigator, Hickory Police Department

The second 2008 Catawba County Team Award was presented to the Rocs With A Role Team. Catawba Social Services’ Child Protective Services staff described itself as “flabbergasted” when they received new State documentation requirements. It consisted of a fifteen page booklet that required staff to manually fill in data blanks and narrative. Child Protective Staff was given only two months to incorporate these requirements into their existing process, and faced what they termed a “real possibility staff would be spending upwards of 40 additional minutes with each of the 2000+ cases they assessed each year, just to meet this new mandate”.

All parties agreed this was not an acceptable addition to their already heavy workloads. Staff assembled the appropriate programming personnel and discussed ways to address this issue. They decided they could not adapt the existing system due to the magnitude of changes being required by the State. They determined to create a master application document that could be connected to future development efforts. A special team, which was called the “Rocs With A Role Team”, (Rocs standing for Report Outcome and Services), was created. The team mapped out the specifications and needs, designed a system, and created a master application that consolidated the State’s new documentation requirements and five other existing applications the agency had been using. The team considered all aspects of service provision, from program management and supervision to data analysis to data entry. The easy solution would have been to simply require staff to meet the new State mandates but the team understood the hardships this was likely to create. The team’s work saved over 1600 additional hours of staff time, provided an opportunity to consolidate several applications into one document with a more seamless look, and created a connection to Social Services main child welfare applications, allowing for a more cohesive connection for analysis and report.

ROCs With a Role Team members include: Diane Linder, IT Project Leader; Michele Francois, Business Manager II; Cyndy Benson, Child Protective Services Program Manager; Katie Turk, Child Protective Services Supervisor; Pam Brooks, Child Protective Services Supervisor; Dianne Driver, Administrative Assistant I; Jason Hughes, Protective Services Social Worker; and Christina Triplett, Protective Services Social Worker, all of Catawba Social Services.

Four other Catawba County teams were nominated for Team Awards, including: The Big Read 2008 Team, which took the lead in planning and coordinating an array of programming for the BIG Read 2008 after the untimely death of featured author Doug Marlette in July 2007; the Online Training Team, which provided training courses to almost 200 employees via online training materials, resulting in savings for instructor fees, fuel costs for traveling to classes and time not used to schedule meeting rooms and media equipment; the PeopleSoft Health Data Collection Team, which solved the problem of an ineffective school health data collection program by creating a cost effective, user friendly data collection program; and the Wellness Committee, which sought ways to have employees become more active and lower insurance costs with fewer claims or prescriptions, through programs such as the Heart Fitness Challenge.

Awards Night was also a time to recognize other County employees who were honored professionally during the past year. The EcoComplex of the Catawba County Department of Utilities and Engineering, which is creating a set of compatible businesses and research facilities which each reuse the waste streams of the others, and the Social Services’ Expedited Paternity Testing Program, which created a system to expedite paternity testing ordered by the court in child welfare cases, were recognized for winning National Association of Counties Achievement Awards. More than 50 employees who earned individual degrees or honors were recognized during the employee recognition dinner, along with several departments and units within departments which received professional awards.

Twenty-nine employees who have retired in the past year were saluted, along with County employees who have served for five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty and thirty-five years. Five retired County employees who have passed away in the last year were remembered. These included Betty Gibson, retired from the Library; Charles Keller, retired from Social Services; Phyllis Nichols, retired from the Purchasing Department; Johnnie Stallings, retired from the Sheriff’s Office; and Jimmy Johnson, retired from Utilities and Engineering,

"Our Employee Awards night is one of the most important events we have each year," Lundy said. "The high quality of services delivered to our citizens is a reflection of the fine work done by our employees. It is always a great privilege for members of the Board of Commissioners and me to spend an evening recognizing many of our employees for outstanding work, and thanking each and every one for the part they play in helping make Catawba County a great place in which to live and work."