How we can walk together (even in a pandemic)

That’s the slogan this year for Steps for Life – Walking for Families of Workplace Tragedy.

But how can we walk together? Some provinces have just dropped back into COVID lockdown. Across the country, nobody is going anywhere. All but a few Steps for Life walks will happen virtually, again. It’s not the first weeks of the pandemic anymore, where we all put on a brave face. We are isolated. We are grieving. We are tired. How do we walk together?

We walk together when we unite behind a shared cause — one that’s important to all of us: to you, to me, to our families and communities.

We walk together when we invite family and coworkers to join our team and to step out at the same time on the same day.

We walk together when we donate to a friend’s Steps for Life efforts, knowing that money will be used to ease the pain and create healing for someone who has suffered a work-related tragedy.

We walk together when we read the stories on other participants’ Steps for Life pages (like this one and this one) and know those stories are from the heart. We walk together when one of those stories moves us to tears, even though the person who wrote it is a stranger.

We walk together when we explain to colleagues, neighbours and relatives why Steps for Life is important to us, and encourage them to support this cause too.

We walk together when we put on those yellow Steps for Life shirts, knowing that across Canada, others are doing the same, even though we can’t see one another. We are a family of people who all want to ensure everyone comes home healthy and safe from work. We are a community of people committed to lifting up those who are struggling and hurting in the wake of a fatality, a life-altering injury or an occupational disease.

So, pandemic or no pandemic, we walk together.

Wherever we walk, we walk together.

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