Ace Race Golf Team Building for Charity
Does your team love golf? The Ace Race let's the group build a miniature golf course out of non-perishable food and then compete with each other to master the course. The "course" is donated to a local food bank.
Build-A-Bike Team Building Event
Build-A-Bike® Team Building Event was the very first charity team building activity and is a participant favorite.
Rescue Bear Charity Team Event
Rescue Bear® Team Building Event has participants build stuffed animals from scratch that are given to police and firefighters for kids who are involved in a traumatic event.
A.M. Castle & Co. included a Build-A-Bike team building event in their recent conference near Chicago, Illinois. A.M. Castle & Co. is the foremost provider of specialty products, services, and supply chain solutions. They are recognized as a leading distributor of carbon, alloy, stainless steel, nickel alloys, aluminum, titanium, cast iron, brass, copper, and plastic, as well as a global resource for complex supply chain solutions. This group of 75 sales, operations managers and senior leadership gathered for this conference to solidify some of the recent changes they have undergone, and strengthen their bond as a group.
Build-A-Bike is a high-energy activity that uses a series of activities and exercises to get people to interact, play and compete with each other. Each exercise builds on the previous one, and teams get some gentle reminders of the importance of cheering each other’s successes, sharing information and materials, and communicating clearly. The A.M. Castle team was a very energetic and creative group! They met all of the challenges with enthusiasm and played hard. Once it became clear that working together was the way to be successful, they jumped right in and helped each other out without hesitation.
They donated the 12 bikes built in the event to the Indian Boundary YMCA in nearby Downer’s Grove. The participants had no idea that the kids were going to come to the event! The workshop’s meaning was made even stronger for the participants when the kids walked through the doors.
“This was a great event! And having the kids there at the end was really exciting!” — Anne Scharm, A.M. Castle & Co.
Teams that play together often work harder and more effectively together. Consider including a Build-a-Bike team building workshop in your next conference as a great way to give your team that opportunity. It will create a memorable and meaningful experience for everyone.
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Ellen Patnaude is Vice President of Instruction for the Northeast region. She is based in Detroit, Michigan, but she also teaches in Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toronto, Baltimore and other Northeast cities.
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Interested in a Team Building Event of Your Own?
Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos was looking for a high energy event to begin their convention, so they decided to host a Build-A-Bike team building event in Chicago, Illinois. Hard Rock Hotels, as well as Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos, are located in various locations in the United States and abroad. This event brought together managers from both the hotel and casino division, with the goal of getting everyone on the same page and to give back to the community.
Some of the managers in this group knew each other well, while others were acquaintances. There was some competition between the hotel and casino divisions of the company. The Build-A-Bike event can be a great icebreaker for people to get to know each other outside of the workplace, while encouraging people to work together. Each team cannot solve problems alone. They must work with each other and with other teams to be successful. While most of them are focusing on having fun during the event, they are simultaneously learning cooperative skills that result in not only a better work environment; they also increase productivity! Competition is not necessarily a bad thing, but this team event places emphasis on cooperation, and how working together is essential to accomplishing goals.
At the end of the event, Hard Rock Hotels & Casino built 6 bikes for very happy children from the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago. Participants in the event were thrilled to see the smiles on the kids’ faces when they received the bikes, knowing that they had helped make a difference in their lives. The Build-A-Bike event helped realize one of Hard Rock Hotels and Casino’s core principles, giving back to the community.
“It was a GREAT event and our people have been raving about the exercise! I’m sure we’ll cross paths again in the future!” Claudia Infante, Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos
Participants felt that this event was a great way to begin their conference, knowing that they had made the kids’ day, while also learning some new skills that could be implemented immediately. Consider a team building event as a great way to kick off a conference in a fun and energetic way!
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Chris McNeany is a Vice President and Instructor for the The Leader’s Institute®. He is based in Los Angeles, California, but he teaches classes in San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Seattle as well.
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Over 40 Baxter HealthCare Salespeople came together in Chicago, Illinois, for a Build-A-Bike Team Building Event. The participants made their way through a variety of activities that culminated in the building of 8 brand new bicycles that were given to children from a local boys and Girls club. It was an enjoyable event with lots of laughter, interaction, movement and even some learning. At the end of the program made positive comments were shared and great feeling of satisfaction was felt throughout the group. 8 children received new bikes and the feeling of learning a little bit about team work and team leaderships was compounded with the feeling of giving back to the community.
At the end of the even, when the children receive the bikes, there is a great feeling of esprit de corps. Throughout the program, although competition is downplayed, even discouraged, because of the division of the people into teams there is a definite air of competition in the event. But in the end when the teams have completed the bikes and they have been contributed to a great cause, the attendees realize that there is something greater than the competition; something greater than winning; something greater than each team- it is each team coming together to make a difference. It isn’t the completion of one team that makes a difference, but rather the completion of the overall goal, to build 8 bikes, and each team’s contributions to that whole that really makes the difference.
Thanks to Baxter HealthCare for a great event and a great contribution to children in the greater Chicago area.
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Craig Wagganer is Vice President of
Instruction for the Midwest region. He is based in St. Louis, Missouri, but he also teaches in Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Washington DC, and other Midwest and Central US cities. |
Interested in a Team Building Event of Your Own?
Chicago Team Building Locations
Some of our favorite places to conduct team building events in Chicago, Illinois:
- The Hyatt Regency
- The Peninsula Chicago
- The Four Seasons
- Omni Chicago
- Westin North Shore
- Hilton Michigan Ave.
Outdoor Team Building Locations
Some of our favorite places to conduct Camaraderie Quest Team Building Events
- The Navy Pier
- Shedd Aquarium (Indoor)
- Millennium Park
- The Magnificent Mile
- Chicago History Museum
Camaraderie Quests can be conducted at any location, but the more interesting the location, the more interesting the team building event. These are a few places that make for an interesting and fun event for your group.
Other Locations
Although this website primarily addresses Chicago team building events, our local instructors cover all surrounding areas including Madison, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and more. Our team building facilitators are located in major cities all over the United States, so if you are looking for an event in another city, visit our Request a Quote page for details.