Corporate Wellness Programs

SPRING PLACE — Michele Fraser has a very personal reason for working to improve her health — last April she had a heart attack.

“I’m on a low cholesterol, low sodium diet now,” she said.

Fraser, a paraprofessional at Woodlawn Elementary School, is one of more than 40 Murray County Schools employees already taking advantage of a wellness program offered through PictureWellness, a corporate wellness company based in Cleveland, Tenn. The program is offered through a partnership with Mohawk Industries, which hired PictureWellness to offer weekly nutrition, exercise and counseling classes to its employees.

PictureWellness President Maurice Saliba said that when the group’s last facility became unavailable, he contacted Murray County Schools Superintendent Vickie Reed about the problem and school officials agreed to allow Mohawk’s PictureWellness participants to use the gym at Spring Place Elementary. As part of the agreement, school system employees and students 10 and older can participate in their own separate classes at no cost to the participants or the school system.

“It’s really exciting,” Reed said as she watched dozens of employees line up to have their blood pressure, glucose, weight and other health indicators recorded. “We’re going to have lots of employees with lots of endorphins.”

Feeling better is exactly why Coker Elementary School kindergarten teacher Renda Baggett said she signed up for the program.