By putting together fun, creative contests, Corban’s mailroom ladies are brightening up Oregon’s rather dreary days for students.
Suzanne Riffle and Carol Kruse have been working together in the mail room for almost 3 years. throughout this time, they have developed a close relationship that involves joking around.
While throwing back and forth jokes one day, Kruse mentioned that she had received an ugly gumball machine. She asked Riffle if she would like it. Both agreed it was indeed ugly; therefore, they decided to have a contest for Corban students to get rid of their gum dispenser.
“We decided to fill it with candy and have the students guess how many pieces [of candy] were in it,” said Riffle.
They held this competition in October and used Halloween candy to fill the machine.
Both of these ladies enjoyed that contest so much, they wanted to do something that would draw on the strengths of other students,” Kruse said. The ladies cannot remember what the prize was for this competition, but Kruse said, “It was really groovy!”
Because of the success of the first two, they decided to do a contest for Christmas. Kruse came up with the idea of a scavenger hunt. The prize was a huge basket filled with goodies.
“We baked some cookies, I think,” Kruse said.
For this new year they put together a matching contest based on 29 baby pictures of staff and 31 names. Students had to match names to pictures.
For each of the four contests they’ve hosted, Kruse and Riffle said all the ideas have just “hit them.” They are excited to see what they think up next, but they both agree that they do not want students to get used to these contests.
“We pay for everything out of pocket, which we cannot do with all the ideas, but we enjoy doing this because we promote fun,” they said.
If students have any ideas, they are willing to listen, just stop by the mailroom.