One weekend a year, in the spring, First Rate rents Pine Cove Conference Center for our employees and their families. We call it The First Rate Living Weekend Retreat.
At six Friday night we gather in the main building of the campground where the activities will take place. We see our employees with their families playing Ping Pong, shooting pool, competing over a board game, or just hanging out, engaged in good conversation.
We enter the Dining Hall, where there’s a giant Pizza Party! Once at the tables, the conversations get even more involved. The main reason we host this Weekend Retreat is to say thanks to our employees for working hard. This is one small reward—a free weekend of total enjoyment!
Our Chaplain, Jud, serves as host and he turns it over to me for the official welcome. “Trina and I are so glad you made time in your schedule to come out and join us here. This is a weekend that’s all about fun, so I don’t want you to forget that.”
Jud then introduces our speaker. We don’t want preachy, so we have a speaker who is fun, funny, entertaining, yet offering us a challenge.
When the meeting concludes, some retire to their cabins, while others head back to the game room, while still others just visit.
On Saturday morning, after breakfast, our speaker delivers two more sessions. As the morning closes, Jud announces, “Pine Cove has many activities. We have horseback riding, a Zip Line, canoes, basketball, Ping Pong, and Frisbee golf. And don’t be shy about going back to your cabin for an afternoon nap!”
The fun doesn’t end at night. Saturday night is Bingo night. And not just ordinary Bingo. It’s Dave’s Bodacious Bingo.
My Bingo comes with all kinds of prizes. It feels like they’re being awarded every two minutes and nobody is being left out.
Sunday morning offers one final session. It all flew by. Fun never slows things down. It’s just the opposite. Enjoyment speeds things up, and before you know it, it’s over.
That’s why it’s important to keep the value of enjoy in our focus at all times. Granted life can’t be one continuous party, but the more we can find enjoyment in life, the better off we’re going to be.
First Rate Living is Enjoy with our co-workers!