In March, BLG Chair Alex De Zordo started early morning walks to build some routine into his remote working days in lieu of daily train commutes. He knew that others had also started incorporating daily walks, jogs and rides into their work from home routine. When BLG’s Engagement Committee approached him with the BLG Walks Across Canada initiative he agreed it would be great to see how far we can travel together, as one team. He sent out an email to all firm members at the end of May, asking anyone who wanted to participate to join him in logging each step in the virtual journey.
Google maps tells us that a person leaving the Waterfront Centre - BLG Vancouver - would have to walk 5093 km if they wanted to visit each BLG office before reaching the Montréal office at 1000 de la Gauchetière W. The idea was that BLG walkers, joggers, hikers and bikers could collectively make the trip between May and Canada’s Birthday on July 1, 2020. In fact, another mere 1200km (give or take) will allow us to make it out to our clients out East and dip our toes in the Atlantic.
Participating was easy – step counts were sent to a specific email either daily or weekly, and we tracked our progress as a group.
After a few weeks of tracking, sharing photos and regular updates, we realized that we had far surpassed our goal.
We had walked from Vancouver, to Calgary, to Toronto, to Cape Spear (Newfoundland), back to Montréal, to Ottawa, up to CFS Alert in Nunavut, to St. Elias Mountains in the Yukon, and then back across our country to the West Coast, having achieved a distance of 19,654.79 kilometers!
We did it.
Beyond the kilometers and step counts, we wanted to inspire and engage each other – and if our initiative has improved but one colleague’s well-being in these trying times, we have far surpassed any physical distance.
BLG’s Engagement Committee is made of over 30 volunteers from all areas of the Firm who work together to ensure our members feel supported, engaged and have the resources they need to do their work and stay healthy.