(rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

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Workplace safety “everybody’s problem” the message at Steps for Life Walk

May 7, 2022 | 3:37 PM

In an instant — one that Karen Poirier never could’ve anticipated, but certainly hoped would never come — she and eight-year-old daughter Kira were physically without their husband and father forever.

Poirier was the family spokesperson at Saturday’s Steps for Life Walk at Bower Ponds, an event which has raised more than $150,000 over 12 years in Red Deer. Funds go to Threads of Life, an organization which helps people move forward after a family member has been killed or seriously harmed in the workplace.

The event is held at Bower Ponds where a permanent memorial for fallen workers was established a couple years ago.

Poirier’s husband Mike, a fireproofer in Edmonton, died in hospital on Nov. 22, 2014, a day after falling off a ladder. In his profession for a decade, he’d been working alone for mere minutes when tragedy struck.

Karen Poirier (left) and daughter Kira, at the Red Deer Steps for Life Walk on May 7, 2022 at Bower Ponds. Karen’s husband and Kira’s father, Mike, died in a workplace accident in 2014. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

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Speaking at the event’s opening ceremony, Poirier emphasized to the 150 or so in attendance that every step counts.

“To other folks in my position, just realize that you’re not alone. When everything first happens, you will feel that way, you’ll feel empty, lost, like nobody understands,” she says.

“When I was approached to participate, I started meeting other families and making lots of connections. That was nice, to be able to tell my story, validate my feelings, and to find other people who understood what I was feeling.”

Specifically, Threads of Life offers the following services:

• Training family members to become injury prevention champions in our national Speakers Bureau.
• Sending family members to a regional Family Forum to help them learn healthy coping skills.
• Allowing family members to receive peer support from a Volunteer Family Guide.

“Mike was a very hard worker, a family man, and he wore many hats. At family functions, his absence is still noticed,” Poirier adds, noting she wasn’t aware of Threads of Life eight years ago. “Hopefully this event is seen by other families who don’t know about it, and they can get involved.”

Event chair Treena Dixon slipped on ice and severely damaged one knee on the job 18 years ago, and still walks with a cane. Dixon’s doctors decided about 2.5 years ago it was finally time for surgeries, which she’s poised to get the last of later this year.

It’s hampered her life, she admits.

Dignitaries, along with Karen Poirier (middle) and Treena Dixon (blue, right) celebrate the start of Saturday’s Steps for Life Walk. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“I havent worked for 2.5 years while awaiting those surgeries. It’s been life-altering for sure. I’ve had one knee replaced, I’m waiting for another, and I’m only 46,” she shared. “It’s very personal to me, which is why I like to make sure this event is always a success.”

Dixon says she was actually attending a course about scaffolding safety, and the snow-filled parking lot had recently been scraped. On their way from one part of the building to another, she fell on the then cleared but frozen ground.

“I’ve been working in the safety sector for over 20 years, and I can honestly say this is something we all have to work towards every day; making sure we’re working safe and looking out for everyone else we’re working around,” she says. “It’s everybody’s problem, because you kever know when it could happen to you or someone you love. That tragedy will have a massive snowball effect, and we have to do all we can to stop it before it starts.”

Saturday’s event aimed to raise $20,000.

More information is at threadsoflife.ca.

READ MORE: Red Deerians gather for National Day of Mourning at Bower Ponds