ABOYNE – Essential workers got a morale boost Wednesday when an 18-wheel tribute rolled into the new Groves Memorial Hospital.
The trailer decorated with the larger-than-life message of support is travelling across Ontario and is making its way through Wellington County, courtesy of Arthur-based Ivan Armstrong Trucking.
The trailer was made possible thanks to a number of trucking companies who contributed to the tribute. Many of the companies get a certain amount of time with it to support essential workers in their own communities.
It is decorated with words of thanks to essential workers, along with the photo of a police officer, nurse, doctor, firefighter and a truck driver.
Currently it's Ivan Armstrong Trucking's turn to take the trailer on tour.
“We have always been community oriented, so when this was suggested they were all over it,” said Jeff Lambier, HR and safety compliance manager with Ivan Armstrong Trucking.
It also happens that this is both National Nursing Week and National Police Week, something Lambier said was all the more reason to bring everyone together to celebrate.
“I didn’t just want to take it home and put it in the yard for our truck drivers to view it, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to come out here with the OPP and hospital staff," he said.
Lambier said not everyone considers truck drivers when thinking about essential workers, but times would be even tougher without the timely moving of goods across the province and beyond.
On Wednesday morning the trailer was parked in the lot at Groves, allowing hospital staff to take a break and get their photo taken with it, along with local Centre Wellington Fire and OPP.
Natasha Leblanc is a registered nurse in the operating room at the hospital. She said fire, police, nurses and other front line staff work closely all of the time, but since the pandemic began it is rare for them to be able to come together to celebrate that working relationship.
“I think it’s really nice that the community came together to bring us here and the essential services all came out,” said Leblanc.
Jill Schitka, vice-president of clinical services and chief nursing executive, agrees.
“Because of COVID we haven’t been able to do things we usually would do, but we have to make sure all of the essential services know we are thinking of them and we really want to showcase it, but we have to do it in a different way," said Schitka.
The 18-wheeler will be travelling to the hospital in Palmerston on Thursday and to the fire station in Mount Forest on Friday.
“It’s good that we can extend this to all of our sites so all of our staff can be a part of this,” said Schitka.
When the emergency services get together, it's usually on someone's worst day, said Const. Kirk MacDonald, media relations and community safety officer Wellington County O.P.P. He called the trailer 'a moving tribute.'
“We don’t get to let our hair down — so to speak — that often, so to have something like this from a company in our community to give us a little morale boost right now, it certainly means a lot to us,” he said.
