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