McKesson, CSI tragedies inspire co-worker action

Employees at Central States Industrial Equipment and Service participated in the April 23 American Heart Association’s Heart Walk in honor of co-worker engineer Gary Heuer. Heuer died of a heart attack March 6. He was 49.

“When you lose somebody that you see every day, it affects everyone because you realize how short life really is,” said Tina Phillips, CSI marketing director. “Gary loved life, he loved having a good time and he valued life. I think everyone recognized that and wanted to honor his memory.”

They are honoring Heuer in a big way.

At press time, the 90-employee company had raised more than $14,000 for the Heart Walk with more than 100 people participating in the event. CSI officials originally challenged employees to raise $2,000. They met that goal in the first week.

By comparison, the Heart Walk’s largest contributor in 2004 was Cox Health Systems, which raised nearly $9,000, according to the American Heart Association, Heartland division.

CSI’s immense involvement started with a phone call placed at the right time. An American Heart Association representative called CSI about participating the day after Heuer died. “We thought the process would help them grieve,” Phillips said.

A page on the company’s Web site, www.csidesigns.com, is dedicated to Heuer.

McKesson Corp.

The Springfield office of McKesson Corp. also has responded to the loss of a co-worker in an honorable way.

Carlos Jones died in January after a yearlong battle with cancer. Jones, who had been with McKesson since 1999, was a product support team member when he went on leave in early 2004 after being diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer. He was 45.

The company is doing several things to honor Jones. Its annual team in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event has been renamed Team Carlos. The company has raised more than $11,000 so far for the May 13-14 event.

Jennifer Moist, McKesson’s director of product development, said the response has been encouraging.

“We’ve been doing (Relay) for a number of years, but sometimes your employees will lose interest in the same thing year after year. This will really help … to give back hope to (Jones’) family,” she said.

McKesson also sponsored a golf tournament April 23 at Republic’s Island Green Golf Course, with proceeds to go to the American Cancer Society.

But Jones’ wife Kim said the company really came through for her and her son, Steven, during the year that her husband was on leave.

“Throughout his illness, the whole organization would send cards,” she said. “We had to travel to St. Louis frequently, and they raised money to help us with those expenses. During the holidays, they just brought tons of food for our family.”

The support has not faded. The company set up a memorial fund with Empire Bank to benefit Steven, who turns 9 on April 29. The money goes toward funding Steven’s education.

MS Walk

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society Ozark Branch’s annual MS Walk was April 2, and it also was full of stories of companies turning personal hardships into helping hands.

JP Morgan Chase, formerly Bank One, participated for the fifth consecutive year. Among the 35 people who participated, many cited family members or friends who have been afflicted with the nondeadly illness.

“I was amazed to find out that two people on my own small team are affected by it,” said Shari Laird, technical specialist and team member. “And I’ve heard of several other instances from employees throughout my years here. I used to think it was a rare disease, but I was truly shocked to find out how common it really is.”

The company raised almost $5,000 for the event.

Efforts like those are a way companies can show how important their employees are. Phillips said CSI wanted to make sure those closest to Heuer knew how his co-workers felt about him.

“When we told the employees we were going to participate in the Heart Walk, they saw it as a way to reach out to (Heuer’s) family and show them how much we cared about Gary,” Phillips said. “Most everyone in the company has told me that they had a brother or a father or an uncle or somebody in their family who’s been affected by heart disease. Because of this tragedy we realized that it could be any one of us.”