Emily Leighton | Staff Writer
In late March of this year, a fire blazed at a local Hillshire plant here in Storm Lake. There were no reported injuries. Six hundred employees temporarily lost their jobs due to what was determined as a welding accident. The employees are still receiving pay and benefits while they rebuild.
Because the company has been closed for these past few months, it is assumed that the employees haven’t been working with the same physical conditions. The Hillshire company reached out to the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center (BVRMC) and the Fitness and Health Center for an exercise program that their employees could go through before going back into production. Through the help of the trainers and occupational therapists, they came up with a six-week workout plan for the employees to go through to get back into the right physical shape.
BVRMC and the Fitness and Health Center wanted to include Buena Vista University (BVU) students in this corporate fitness opportunity so they asked the Human Performance Student Organization (HiPSO) to come work alongside them. HiPSO is a campus group that consists mostly of Exercise Science majors. One of the purposes of this group is to give these students opportunities outside of the classroom so working with Hillshire provided a perfect opportunity.
As a part of the exercise program, the Hillshire employees are required to come three days a week for an hour each time. With there being over 400 employees, the trainers and occupational therapists are working from 8-4:30 p.m. running the workout sessions. The HiPSO members are free to come and go as they can in their schedules. These students are able to choose how involved they want to be when they are there. Some of the students come for observation, watching for things such as how the trainers interact with the Hillshire employees and how the program works. Other students get more involved and help demonstrate exercises, correct form, and motivate the employees. Also, if students are certified, they are able to run stations themselves after direction from the trainers and therapists.
Senior and Exercise Science major Lesa Turnquist has been very involved in the Hillshire training.
“One worry the company had was that after being away from this physical labor job, when the employees came back to work, they would experience work-related injuries because their body would not be used to the physical activity. Overall, things have been running smoothly. Although not everyone is excited to do the actual workout part of it, which is normal when talking about having to workout, the employees have been very cooperative in doing what we ask of them,” Turnquist said. “They come in groups of about 50 so it’s a large amount of people that we have to manage, and they have made the process easy by working with us.”
The program is aimed to help employees gain back their physical requirements needed for work before they return to Hillshire again. Turnquist also explains how it can also be used as a way to express the importance of fitness and overall wellbeing.
“I can already tell that many have become better just by watching their form and how they are able to move their body compared to day one. I think the people are also understanding more about working out and what it can do for their health and wellness, which is also a very good thing for us to be able to reach out to this large amount of people,” Turnquist said.
The company is expected to reopen sometime in the end of this November. When the building is ready, the Hillshire employees will be happy to get their jobs back and to start working again.
“The employees are definitely ready to get back into the plant. A lot of them have said they just want to get back into their regular routine. These people also seem a lot like a family, and I think they’ve missed being around each other, as they spend hours side by side in the line,” Turnquist said.
