Walking the walk

Safety association gets behind
back health initiative

Author: Jamie Hall

sit to stand graphic

When Lorne Kleppe talks about “backing” Take a Walk Day,
he doesn’t intend the pun, even though promoting good
back health is at the heart of the annual event.

Kleppe is the executive director of Manufacturers’ Health and Safety Association (MHSA), which has 1,600 members across Alberta who employ more than 60,000 people. Its mission is to promote health and safety in the province’s manufacturing industry through education, training, advocacy and partnership.

Take a Walk Day perfect fit

“We’ve been involved in a lot of different initiatives in the past couple of years to bring the ‘health’ back into health and safety,” says Kleppe. “And Take a Walk Day was the perfect vehicle for that—we agree that staying active and moving is better for your back, and your health.”

Originally intended for employees at WCB, Take a Walk Day was recently introduced to an external audience to spread the message to Albertans about remaining active through back pain.

Friendly competition

Kleppe says MHSA staff in Edmonton and Rocky View embraced the challenge, and even began a friendly competition to see who could come up with the most inventive displays. Edmonton staff created a “Take a Walk Fitness Road” in the classroom corridor at its office while Rocky View created a wall display of back-related posters and brochures, covering subjects such as “Sitting and Preventing Back Pain,” “Lifting and Your Back—Some Fresh Ideas,” and “How Much Can I Lift?”

Kleppe says Take a Walk Day proved to be a great morale booster for staff, and also gave them another opportunity to educate members about the importance of maintaining proper back health.

Keep moving

“MHSA will certainly participate again this year,” says Kleppe,” and we challenge all our members to do the same, and other safety associations.