Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 26, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 17 OFFICE NEEDS CHANGING? WE CAN HELP. We've been designing and manufacturing office furniture for more than 30 years. Schedule a tour of our Leominster showroom and factory, we'll gladly host you. Visit us online or call us at 1-800-434-7400. ais-inc.com Team Spaces Collaborative Areas Meeting Spaces Workstations Private Offices Cafeterias M A N U F A C T U R I N G E X C E L L E N C E A W A R D S F O C U S Darcy Cook helped manufac- turers stay open and safe D arcy Cook, president and owner of Safety Trainers, was working as a physical therapist in the late 1990s when her father suggested she help her brothers, two firefighters in Auburn who ran a side business facili- tating CPR and first aid training classes. Cook wasn't so sure right away, but agreed to help on a part-time basis. ings went well for a few years. "en, 9/11 happened, and our busi- ness took a completely different model," Cook said. Disaster preparedness moved from an abstract concept to a concrete necessity, and companies were racing to jump on board. Cook le health care and stopped practicing physical therapy in 2002, focusing instead on helping to transition the company into an Occupa- tional Health & Safety Administration compliance business. Safety Trainers now works with com- panies across 11 industries, including as many as 225 manufacturers around New England, to develop safety plans, help BY MONICA BUSCH Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer with OSHA compliance and implement emergency action plans, among other tools aimed at making workplaces safe. "We want everyone to go home with all their fingers and toes at the end of the day," Cook said. e two brothers she started the com- pany with are in the process of wrapping up their careers, but her younger broth- er, Joe Ceccarelli, who has a background in construction, joined Safety Trainers along the way and remains the com- pany's director of OSHA compliance. at collaboration is particularly helpful because, Cook said, while she knows the ins and outs of safety regulations, Cecca- relli has the real-world experience. He's had his own fair share of run- ins with unsafe work environments, she said, including serious workplace injuries due to companies providing inadequate training. Now, the brother-sister duo, in con- junction with the six other employees at Safety Trainers, work to ensure other workers don't endure the same fate. And, from the other side of things, they work to make sure businesses can stay open when faced with unprecedented chal- lenges, like the coronavirus pandemic. Over the course of the last year, Cook and her team have worked to help develop company control plans, communicate rapidly-changed pandem- ic-related regulations to their clients and helped those businesses, including manufacturers, keep their doors open. ey devised a formal training program to teach businesses how to be safe in the face of the pandemic, how to comply with regulatory bodies and how to nav- igate any complaints filed against them with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. e results, she said, have been great. Clients reported they not only managed to stay open under Safety Trainers' guid- ance, but they retained employees and maintained productivity. It's a model she says her company plans to hold on to in a post-coronavirus world. Manufacturing Champion D a r c y C o o k , C H S O , S H S , P TA Title: President Company: Cook Professional Resources, Inc. dba Safety Trainers Location: Worcester Founded: 1998 Cook's residence: Auburn The old Canal District: "I miss old Water Street. One of my favorite jobs was Tom's Deli, which had homemade cream cheese, sweet butter and fresh kielbasa. I was surrounded by the best foods all day long: Weintraub's pastrami sandwiches, Widolf's bulkies, The Broadway breakfast, and of course the warm cinnamon raisin bagels from Lederman's Bakery at 2 a.m." W

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