Start a new Family Day tradition

Family Day. A day to celebrate being together with our family during a long Canadian winter. What are you doing this family day? Spending time with loved ones, relaxing and sharing a meal together, maybe doing some outdoor winter activities with family, or heading out of town to visit relatives. All good ideas!

Family Day is recognized in six Canadian provinces in February. It creates a much-needed long weekend break during the cold, dark stretch of winter. While not everybody gets the day off work, lots of families use this relatively new holiday as a chance to relax and play together.

But maybe it’s time to start a new Family Day tradition. Let’s spend some time thinking about the family members that Threads of Life supports. Families who may be grieving the death or injury of a loved one through a workplace tragedy, or who are dealing with occupational disease. Families who woke up one morning thinking that their day was going to be the usual, only to find out that a loved one either did not come home from work, or came home injured. Families whose lives have been forever changed. Families who used to spend Family Day together celebrating with each other, and now can’t because of a workplace tragedy. Families who never thought this could happen to them. It can and sadly, it still does. On a day that celebrates families, let’s spend some time thinking about the families who are not able to celebrate.

Let’s offer help to these families on Family Day. A donation of $100 would help accommodate one family for one night at one of four Family Forums held across the country. An opportunity for healing and sharing that is so important after a workplace tragedy.

A donation of $50 would provide a day’s meals for a family member training to join the Threads of Life Speakers Bureau, a program that promotes safety in the workplace by having family members speak in the community, and at workplaces. They tell their personal stories in the hope that it will motivate others to work safely, and to create safe and healthy workplaces – in the hope that no one will have to go through what their family went through.

Make a donation today!

Make a difference to a family member this Family Day.

Let’s get involved! Take a look at www.stepsforlife.ca and find out where a Steps for Life walk is taking place near you. If you can’t attend a local walk, why not spend Family Day planning an activity to participate in Your Walk, Your Way — Any Day in May. Plan a family activity as a fundraiser for Steps for Life. Use your imagination! Anything is possible!

Let’s start that new tradition this year on Family Day. Whatever your plans are, enjoy your day!