From safety professionals to families of workplace tragedy, with love

by | Aug 18, 2022 | Partner Praise, Your Gifts at Work

This past April, Threads of Life’s Executive Director Shirley Hickman shared her story at the What If One Health and Safety Forum (WIO) in Vancouver, in a session titled “One Voice Can Make a Difference”. Organizers of the event gave participants a unique opportunity to make a $25 donation in exchange for two Safety and Health Week T-shirts — one to keep and one to use to send a message to a Threads of Life family member – someone who was living with the reality of an on-the-job injury, illness, or fatality. Gabe Guetta, CEO of Salus, a Gold Sponsor of the event, liked the idea so much that he offered to make an additional $10 contribution from Salus for each T-shirt messaged to a Threads of Life family. So we asked Gabe — what inspired you to join in on this initiative? 

Here’s what Gabe had to say:

“Health and safety is at the core of everything we do at Salus. As a safety software provider we believe the physical and mental wellbeing of workers should be a priority for all companies. But our experience with health and safety goes beyond the surface level. 

Salus was created because we knew that safety in the workplace demanded a cultural shift. With roots in construction, I experienced firsthand the dangers that a lacking safety culture poses to workers. Safety is not a check box for employers to tick off at the end of the day. Safety cannot be looked at as a cost center for businesses. Safety is a mindset that needs to be embedded in everything employers and employees do. Because everyone deserves to return home safely to their loved ones at the end of their shift. 

Support from partners can come in unique and powerful ways! These T-shirts were delivered to families affected by workplace tragedy at the Atlantic Family Forum in spring 2022. Here’s one family member wearing her shirt at the forum. Each shirt carries a personalized hand-written message from a donor at the What If One Health and Safety Forum (WIO) held in Vancouver in April 2022. Salus generously offered to add a $10 donation for each T-shirt messaged through a $25 donation.

While the industry is slowly starting to see that change happen, there are still thousands of individuals and families impacted by preventable workplace incidents every year. Which is why events like the What If One Health and Safety Forum (WIO) and organizations like Threads of Life are so important to the industry. There is still so much work to be done in making job sites safer for every worker, and getting together as a community to ask ourselves how we can make that change happen is a powerful first step.

When Salus learned that WIO was supporting Threads of Life, there was no question we would contribute in any way we could. Salus can only hope that our work has a fraction of the impact on the industry that Threads of Life has created over the past 20 years. While one day we hope to reduce the number of workplace tragedies to zero, we have to continue to remember the lives of those who have been impacted.

It was an easy decision to donate an additional $10 per Threads of Life T-Shirt sold at WIO. In doing so, Salus hoped to encourage other industry members to join in support of this truly invaluable organization and help families going through tremendous loss.

Working together as a community has the ability to impact so many more lives. We hope to see other events and businesses showing their support for Threads of Life in any way they can.”   

– Gabe Guetta, CEO of Salus, salussafety.io

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