#1: Working together as a team at the USPS is important every day to help ensure every piece of mail is delivered, but even more critical this time of year when an estimated one billion gifts will be delivered over the 2022 holidays. Get your team to the local post office here in downtown La Jolla and take a video of your team either inside or outside of the building working together to complete the Group Sit & Stand Challenge. Basically, your team members will all be standing shoulder to shoulder in a tight clump/circle with your backs all facing in and your arms interlocked. Slowly lower the entire interlocked group to the ground until you are in a seated position with your butts on the ground, and then slowly stand all the way back up while remaining interlocked the entire time. To watch a video of a group successfully completing this challenge click HERE. Once you successfully complete it, celebrate the fact that you are ready to take on this holiday season together as a team!

#2: This part of California is known for loving food with a bit of a kick, and downtown La Jolla has plenty of incredible places to eat that specialize in keeping it spicy. Anywhere around the area, take a video of your team members all at the same time consuming separate spoonfuls of any brand of hot sauce (the hotter the better). Make sure to show the bottle or packet of hot sauce in the video so it can be confirmed that it's actually hot sauce you're consuming. Disclaimer, this will likely not be pleasant, which is exactly the point. Because a team that suffers together, grows together.

#3: Find someone 80 years old or older around the area. Take some time to chat with them, listen to a story they may have about the local area, or just ask them about their life. Then at some point take a video of your team asking them the question “What is the most important thing you have ever sent through the mail during your lifetime?”. Then at some point after your hunt ends click HERE to learn about how loneliness in seniors can be as hazardous to their health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and how a simple interaction like what you’ll do for this challenge can change that.

#4: Get every team member a large (16 ounces or so) open-top paper, plastic, or foam cup and fill it with water. Then somewhere outdoors, line up shoulder to shoulder and balance a full cup on each team member’s head. Once everyone’s cups are balanced, hold hands with the team members on either side of you and take a video of your team working together to all take 10 steps forward without anyone touching their cup or having it spill. If someone’s cup spills make sure to encourage them and then refill any spilled cups and start again as a team. After your team successfully travels 10 steps together dump the cups to prove they were full, and celebrate!

#5: To be committed to the environment like the Postal Service is requires it’s leadership to use their brains to come up with creative solutions. Whether that’s initiatives to increase the number of electric vehicles, making sure Priority Mail boxes come from sustainable forests, or striving to reduce energy used per square foot of building space by 25 percent by 2025. To honor the brain power needed to making sure the USPS is an environmental leader, find the hidden mural around town that features a brain and a tree, as seen HERE. Once it’s in view, take a picture of your entire team all completing any variation of the "Tree Pose" while that mural is in the background. To view a picture of someone properly performing a variation of the Tree Pose click HERE.

#6: Get to any clothing or apparel store and find two different items with enough in stock that every team member can be wearing the same two items in their own sizes. Then take a fun team picture with everyone wearing those items. For example it may be a wacky shirt, and a pair of shorts. Or maybe some cozy slippers and a large sun hat. As long as everyone is wearing the same exact two items but in their own sizes.

#7: San Diego is proud to be known as the birthplace of naval aviation, and no it’s not because of the Top Gun movies. One of the reasons is because it was in this area roughly 100 years ago that the development of the aircraft carrier happened. To honor this area’s role in advancing human flight, take a video of your team completing the "Paper Airplane Challenge". Basically send some team members to the 2nd level of any building or parking garage and have them toss paper airplanes out into the air in front of them (not just dropping it straight downward). The rest of your team should be on the sidewalk or grass below. Any of your team members at ground level need to catch just one plane before it hits the ground. All team members at ground level can be attempting to catch planes, but only one plane needs to be caught. To watch a team complete this mission successfully click HERE.

#8: To build anything great, whether that’s an agency responsible for providing postal service throughout the country, or someone responsible for popularizing an entire sport like surfing, requires great leadership and vision. Located somewhere around this town is a life-sized statue of a person who the U.S. Postal Service issued a first-class commemorative stamp of with their picture on it. The First Day Ceremony was held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and was attended by thousands. At this ceremony, attendees could attach the stamp to an envelope and get it canceled with a First Day of Issue postmark. These first day covers have become very collectible. Once you’ve found the statue, take a memorable team picture with it reacting wildly as if you’ve just met your longtime icon. Then after this event, live each day in a way that will make people want to build a statue of you in the future.

#9: San Diego is home to the nation's largest concentration of military personnel and more than 240,000 veterans reside here. Anywhere around the area find an active military person or a veteran. They could be wearing some form of military or veteran attire, have a military ID, or they could simply describe their military background while you’re completing your challenge. Once you’ve found someone, take a video of them watching your entire team doing 10 push-ups or sit-ups at their feet to honor their strength and courage. After you’ve finished recording, spend a few minutes learning more about their time in the service before you depart, as a small gesture of appreciation.

#10: Now that it’s December most people have begun their countdown to the holidays. To get ready for all of the gift wrapping you’ll be doing in a few weeks wrap any one member of your team from head to toe in toilet paper (or multiple team members if they want to get in on the fun) leaving as few gaps as possible except around their nose/mouth so they can breathe easily. Then take a fun team picture with your newly wrapped co-worker and have each team member state one reason why they are a “gift” to the USPS or to you personally.

#11: On average, the Postal Service processes and delivers 167.3 million pieces of First-Class Mail each day, but that can’t be done successfully without an incredible attention to detail. This challenge will test your ability to notice some of those kinds of details, even while you’re surrounded by lots of distractions. Take a team picture with any parked vehicle that has a license plate which contains numerical digits that add up to 10, no more, no less. So if the plate were "CF2H 5K3" it would be acceptable because those numbers add up to 10 and there aren't any additional numbers.

#12: La Jolla is ranked as one of the best places around San Diego to go shopping. To honor this fact, take a video of at least half the members in your group completing the "Bite The Bag" challenge. Stand on one leg, bend down and grab a brown paper bag (or a bag similar in height) with your teeth and lift it up as you stand back up on one foot. You must remain on one foot the entire time and can not use your arms, hold onto anything, or bump into anything else. To watch a video of someone successfully completing this challenge click HERE.

#13: As USPS employees you all have likely used Scotch Tape for just about everything. Well, except this. To honor this incredibly versatile American-made product take a fun team picture after everyone uses Scotch tape to dramatically stretch and distort their faces. To create the proper distortion you’ll need at least 5 pieces of tape per face, although the more the better! For some inspiration click HERE.

#14: This challenge is designed to improve your ability to adjust what you’re doing in order to succeed, and also provides a great platform for encouraging each other. Take a video of any two team members both successfully completing the “Bottle Flip Challenge” at exactly the same time. Basically, take a video of both members each flipping their own standard (16 ounces or so) bottle of water onto a hard surface, and getting it to successfully remain standing upright once it lands. The bottle can be filled with as much water as needed to improve your chances of completing the challenge successfully. What will make this challenge difficult is getting two people to make a successful flip on the same attempt. If anyone is struggling, encourage them and keep trying together as a team. Your entire team can all be attempting the challenge together, as long as any two team members land the flip on the same attempt. To watch a video of two people successfully completing this challenge together click HERE.

#15: Today is “National Build Joy Day” (it’s true, look it up). To take part in this positive movement, find a postcard that features this area in some way, or a fun greeting card, and purchase it. Then click HERE to go to the Postcard Happiness Project website and scroll down to the profile for John Craig, an adult with Downs Syndrome from Oregon that loves to receive mail. On your postcard include a fun or uplifting message and sign it with your names or your group name. The mailing address for John can be found in his profile description. Stamp your card and take a picture with it to show you've completed your Act Of Kindness and then drop it in the mail along the way or after your event ends.