Gov. Reynolds spoke at the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort Friday. Photo by Sam McIntosh.

Governor Kim Reynolds visited the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort Friday to present the 2018 Give Back Iowa Challenge award.

Give Back Iowa is a campaign in which businesses encourage their employees to volunteer and log their hours as part of an eight-week campaign. For the Winning Hands volunteer committee at the Riverside Casino, volunteering is year-round, and Casino Manager Dan Franz said the business exceeded their 2017 goal with 11,695 volunteer hours logged from over 150 employees, and gave $50,000 to local organizations.

Franz shared his gratitude with the Winning Hands volunteers, “None of this happens without employees, employees that volunteer. I thank each and every one of you. Some of you which have green shirts or white shirts or blue shirts on, we’re getting every color in the book as we move forward every year. Just thank you for giving your personal time and efforts towards helping so many organizations and people in need throughout our community.”

Gov. Reynolds mentioned that in the challenge’s recent year, 56 employers with over 54,000 employees have logged over 83,000 hours, which was a 39% increase from the year before. Reynolds congratulated Winning Hands, “When it comes to the annual Give Back Iowa Challenge, Riverside Casino and Golf Resort is definitely a rock star. This is the second time that you’ve won the employer category, so congratulations, I’m really really proud of you.”

The Riverside Casino and Golf Resort previously won in the medium-sized employer category in 2016, and received honorable mention in 2017.