Riverside Casino and Golf Resort receive 2016 Give Back Iowa challenge award from Governor Kim Reynolds. Photos by Sam McIntosh.

Governor Kim Reynolds and Lt. Governor Adam Gregg visited the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort Wednesday to recognize their staff’s volunteering efforts.

The casino’s volunteer group Winning Hands received the honorable mention for this year’s Give Back Iowa Challenge, a campaign in which businesses encourage employees to volunteer and log their hours as part of an eight-week challenge.

Winning Hands took first place in 2016, and Reynolds presented their 2016 award, and recognized their 2017 honorable mention. Reynolds spoke to the Winning Hands volunteers, “I think research shows that there’s a great connection between employer-supported volunteering and improved employee wellness, engagement, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and retention. But most importantly, by what you’re doing volunteering and giving back has such a tremendous impact on communities that you’re participating in.”

Give Back Iowa is an eight week challenge, but Winning Hands volunteers year round, as Riverside Casino General Manager Dan Franz says their 2017 goal is to have 175 employees with 11,000 total volunteer hours logged. CEO Dan Kehl says in the past the company has given around $1 per hour to whichever organization employees volunteer for, and he announced that the company will now be giving an extra $5 per hour to these organizations. Examples of these efforts are Habitat for Humanity, Adopt-A-Highway, and the Angel Tree for HACAP of Washington County.

Governor Kim Reynolds speaks to Winning Hands employee volunteers at Riverside Casino and Golf Resort November 1.