watercooler: people passion purpose

Drew Stewart Drew Stewart

Family Day for The Stewart Family ~ By Drew

Family First. Always.

With Family Day on the horizon, we felt it was a good time to share a little bit more about ourselves and why we do what we do.

Now, Family Day is not the sexiest of holidays and doesn't come with all of the fanfare of Christmas, Easter or Canada Day. On Family Day, nary a present, turkey dinner or or patriotic flag waving is likely to be found.

I remember exactly where I was when I found out that BC was instituting the holiday, back on October 12, 2007 (to be implemented on the 3rd Monday in February 2008).

DSC_0341.jpg

I was heading into a team meeting and knew it would be a great way to engage in small talk as we all got settled. As you can imagine, everyone was in unanimous agreement that this holiday was among the best ideas that the government had come up with in a long time. After all, that stretch of road between Christmas Break and Easter was tough sledding without a break. For most of the employees at this company where the demographic was heavily slated to the younger side, Family Day was simply a break from work. No other real significance than to recharge our batteries.

PRAXIS 2020-110.jpg

With age, wisdom and the addition of three children into my life, my perspective has certainly changed. It was having a family that initiated our decision to relocate to my childhood home of Gibsons in 2012, looking for a better work/life balance. We struggled finding that work/life balance initially, working in jobs that no longer seemed to fit with the individuals we had grown into. It became clear that taking the risk to work for ourselves and start building something that we believe in, was the clear option. In 2014, Christina and I made the commitment to ourselves to be accountable to one another (this time from a business perspective!) and be there for our children, at all costs. Just like that, Praxis was born. Since then, we have operated in a manner that aligns with our values:

integrity, honesty, ethical practices, helping others and most of all, family comes first.

Without our family, I have no doubt that Praxis would not exist and I personally would have missed out on meeting so many wonderful individuals that this company has afforded me the opportunity to meet. Family Day isn't just a regular day off around here, it is the best of days.

Read More