Commuter awards given to employees at Premera Blue Cross, Swedish/Edmonds

HBJ Staff

LYNNWOOD — Employees at Premera Blue Cross and Swedish/Edmonds as well as the AT&T call center in Bothell won awards for their efforts at promoting alternative ways of commuting to work last week from Community Transit.

Lynnette Boulch who works for Premera in Mountlake Terrace won the Smart Commuter of the Year award at a ceremony at Embassy Suites in Lynnwood.

She’s been part of a vanpool for more than 25 years and is the primary driver for her group of eight. As part of her commute, she takes the Edmonds-Kingston ferry twice a day.

Karen Lee Kimber who works for Swedish/Edmonds won the Employee Transportation Commuter award.

She’s been in her role for more than 25 years and has developed a “HAVEAGR8RIDE” newsletter that is sent to all Swedish hospital employees.

The newsletter gives employees the cost of driving alone, tips on how to find an alternative form of transportation, how to determine their carbon footprint, the true costs for driving their vehicle and how they can sign up for their worksite commute subsidy, according to Community Transit.

Kimber has also promoted several campaigns to educate and encourage employees to use public transit. She’s been successful in getting more employees to change their commute habits.

The AT&T call center in Bothell won the Employer of the Year. Last year, AT&T promoted seven different campaigns to educate and encourage their employees to use an alternative to driving alone.

AT&T had 47 employees participate during an eight-week biking competition and those riders logged 14,063 miles.

The company also provides ORCA Passport for transit and vanpool use.

Every three months, participants in Community Transit’s Smart Commuter Rewards program who use a commute alternative an average of four days a week are nominated as Smart Commuters. The Smart Commuter of the Year is chosen from these quarterly winners.