Purdue begins awarding prizes for employee COVID-19 vaccination incentive drawing

(From left) Brock Turner, chair of the Campus Support Staff Advisory Committee; Rachael Kenney and her dog Toby; Bill Bell, Purdue vice president for human resources; and Amanda Emmons, vice chair of the Management and Professional Staff Advisory Committee. (Purdue University photo/Lordez Asafo-Boakye)

Fifty Purdue faculty and staff members on the West Lafayette campus are the lucky winners of prizes — including a pair of Boilermaker football season tickets, a free hotel stay plus food voucher, a photo shoot with Purdue Pete, restaurant and merchandise gift cards, and a Córdova Recreational Sports Center year membership — all for choosing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and doing their part in helping Protect Purdue.

To find out their specific prize, winners were invited this week to events at Academy Park and the Purdue Bell Tower. The celebrations included representatives from Human Resources, the Campus Support Staff Advisory Committee, Management and Professional Staff Advisory Committee, Protect Purdue – and, of course, Purdue cheerleaders and the Boilermaker Express.

Winner Rachael Kenney, in her 14th year as a math education professor, decided to bring along her dog Toby for the surprise reveal, finding out she received a pair of dining gift cards. “I got the COVID vaccine as soon as I could,” she says. “It’s the quickest and surest way to keep me, my family and my Purdue colleagues safe.”

A complete wrap-up of the 50 winners from the Protect Purdue employee vaccination promotion is planned for Wednesday's issue of Purdue Today.