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12 | SRNS TODAY | MAY 2021
Imagining the ‘Best Age-Friendly City’
McCracken Middle School wins special award at Future City nationals
T he Future City Finals Competition went out of this world, “The team’s creativity and ingenuity combined with sound engineering
challenging middle-school students to design and build a
design for this city in such a difficult environment was impressive,”
model future city on the moon.
“The three-level, underground model is absolutely amazing.”
This year’s theme encouraged each team to imagine how to make life said Jennifer Keiner, seventh grade science teacher at McCracken.
on the moon not only feasible but optimal—a topic that is pertinent Keiner also said that the teams at the international level of the finals
to today’s news with NASA engineers currently gathering data from are the best of the best, and winning this award affirms the dedication
equipment on Mars. Like current engineers, the competitors had to and hard work that went into the project. “It’s quite an accomplishment
research and determine how best to survive in this hostile environment. considering last year, they won Best Rookie Team at the regional
The team’s lunar city is set more than 100 years in the future. It has competition and, this year, they came back and won the regional
already gone through many years of development. It started as a competition, earning them the opportunity to compete virtually at the
collection of lunar landers that expanded into an outpost. Gradually, it international finals competition,” she added.
grew into a village and is now a city. The students must build on this McCracken eighth-grader Avery Gilley acknowledged the contributions
history, describing the new, complete city. of his teammates. “Though we may not have won the competition
The team representing McCracken Middle School from Spartanburg, as a whole, receiving an award on the national scale is a huge honor.
South Carolina, took full advantage of this challenge and was rewarded The award that we got, the Best Age-Friendly City Award, is a
with the Best Age-Friendly City award, sponsored by AARP. testament to the dedication we put into the well-being of our citizens
when designing our city, giving them an important place in society,
“I’m pleased that SRNS and the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center even as they aged, and supporting them when they are no longer able
can continue to offer these types of STEM-based competitions for to work.”
students locally and throughout the region. It’s often at these events
that students discover their future career path even with the difficulties Future City teams are judged and scored on: The City Essay, City
presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Taylor Rice, SRNS Model slideshow, City Presentation video, Project Plan and their
Education Outreach. response to judges’ questions.
BCBS of South Carolina recognizes SRNS wellness programs
BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) of South Carolina recently honored SRNS with
the 2020 LiveLifeBlue award. The LiveLifeBlue award is given to a BCBS of
South Carolina affiliated organization that displays high standards in the areas
of healthy workplace basics, health and well-being education, health policies,
benefits measuring effectiveness and more.
The BCBS of South Carolina’s LiveLifeBlue award committee seeks out
companies who take all aspects of employee health into consideration,
including financial, physical, professional and social well-being.
SRNS, along with previous winners of the LiveLifeBlue award, are prime
examples for other companies to follow in supporting their employees. BCBS
recognized SRNS for not only taking employee health and wellness solutions
seriously, but for developing an approach to wellness that effectively
engages employees as they make improvements to their overall health.
SRNS Senior Human Resource Specialist Torrey Davis has been involved
in various wellness programs put on by SRNS. “BlueCross BlueShield was
highly impressed by our creative effort with the Biggest Winner competition “SRNS takes the health and wellness of its employees very
that motivated employees to get active and then lose weight,” said Davis. seriously,” said Stuart MacVean, SRNS President and CEO.
“The implementation of benefits from Livongo Health Inc., Hinge Health and “We strive to make sure our employees are set up with all the
Catapult Health were also highly regarded by BCBS.” necessary tools and resources to encourage them to focus
“We have had great success in our SRNS Wellness Programs each year, and on their overall well-being.”
we look forward to continuing to offer our employees these benefits and In 2017, SRNS also won the regional LiveLifeBlue award for
programs,” continued Davis. best-in-class well-being employee program.