On Wednesday, April 5, Korellis held its annual Safety Fest. Korellis management, field workers, and even special members of the community gathered to learn a little more about safety and why it’s so important. The day truly demonstrated what it means to be a team.
Korellis has been holding Safety Fest for over 20 years to help keep its field team safe and well-prepared. This year’s Safety Fest featured seven stations that covered all sorts of important things including tourniquet training, defensive driving, ladder access and stair towers, maintaining mental health, fire extinguishers, fall safety, and rigging.
Steep Slope Estimator and Project Manager John Zamojski led one of the stations. After being a field carpenter for eight years, this was his first time getting to teach. He was beyond excited.
“It’s just such a great opportunity to help everyone in the field. I’ve enjoyed seeing everyone here, and I’ve enjoyed teaching this year. There’s been a lot of engagement; everyone is asking questions and bringing up things and giving their feedback. It’s just such a great day for everyone to get engaged and commit to safety,” said Zamojski.
Zamojski loved how this year’s event demonstrated to the field team how much Korellis cares about them and their well-being.
“It creates a safety culture within the company. We can always share stats and go over the rules, but showing the field we care enough to stop production and train them so that they can go home safely to their families is the most important thing to us. Ensuring that each man, woman, and everyone in the field can go home safely is why days like this are so important,” said Zamojski.
What made this year’s Safety Fest special, though, was the ‘Be Our Guest’ portion of the event. For the first time, Korellis invited members of the community including students from Hammond’s Area Career Center, as well as some Valparaiso University staff to take part in the day’s activities.
“It’s exhilarating to see how many other members of our community understand the need for construction trades and want to come see for themselves how safety is our top priority. Everyone in the area already knows how seriously we take safety, but having other people participate and actually witness it is very satisfying,” said Juli Tattersall, Vice President of Operations at Korellis.
Safety Fest has already grown so much throughout the years, but the Korellis team can’t wait to keep improving on it and making it more engaging for everyone. One day, Korellis may even open it up to more members of the community so they can see firsthand how committed Korellis is to safety.
“If we opened this to the public it would show everyone how in-depth Korellis goes with safety. We put so much into our equipment to make sure that everyone who goes out in the morning returns home to their families the same way. I think it’s huge for people to tap into that and witness it visually instead of just reading about it or hearing about it,” said Tattersall.
All in all, this year’s Safety Fest was a great way to ensure the Korellis crew know how to take care of not only themselves, but each other.
“Out on the job, there will be a crew of 10-20 people making sure they have each other’s back. I think a lot of the courses we’ve done today help everyone manage their own safety as well as take care of each other. You have to take care of yourself first and do your part to stay safe, but we also have to make sure they can take care of each other,” said Tattersall.
Most importantly, though, it helped knit an already close work team even tighter together.
“Korellis has just been great,” said Zamojski. “Management does its best to keep the entire team healthy and working. They care about their workers. They’ve shown me compassion when I needed it, they’ve given me help when I’ve needed it, and they’ve supported me through so much. I want to give a huge thanks to Korellis and its culture for helping me get where I am,” said Zamojski.
To learn more about Korellis, visit https://korellis.com/.
