For most people, a significant workplace crush injury might end their career and their dreams.
For Northland man Alistair McIntyre, known to many school children as Mr Mac, it was the beginning of a new journey, that created the book Doug the Digger, and took him to a whole different career path.
Today, the ‘Having Fun Company’ founded by McIntyre, travels New Zealand in Kerri-Anne the Kenworth, to educate, inspire, and entertain children and youth through his personal journey.
His motivation for doing what he does is quite straightforward; McIntyre wants to show children and young people that working as a machinery operator is a vital and viable career option.
DIESELtalk met McIntyre, and his aide-de-camp Barbara, at Grasslandz, where they had set up camp for two days, much to the delight of many bored children who had come to the event with their parents.
Thanks to Gough Group, which is his principal sponsor, he uses a brand new Caterpillar 301.8C mini excavator known as ‘Little Cutie’ for machine demonstrations, pictured here at Grasslandz.
Gough Group says it is pleasing to see the Caterpillar brand associated with such a good cause.
More than 30 years ago McIntyre sustained a severe crush injury while on the job, owning and operating a transport business that collected and distributed pet food.
McIntyre says he was in his mid-twenties at the time of the accident, and he’d started his working career at 17, running a contract shearing business, gaining his work ethic from his father who was a civil engineer.
Losing his business and having a battle with his rehabilitation providers and process, McIntyre picked up a pencil in November 1997 and drew the first stick drawing of Doug the Digger.
He also went back to his local school, ironically finding the same teacher as before, Jean Smith, because he admits that he wanted to learn, and this was also part of his ambition to write a book.
He still has the original picture of Doug the Digger (in a plastic cooler bin that does double duty as a filing cabinet), which he says he kept and developed into a finished product.
Drawing on his life experiences about overcoming obstacles and challenges, as well as having goals and dreams, McIntyre is also a role model within the nationwide ‘Books in Homes’ project founded by Alan Duff.
In October 2015, McIntyre completed his 795th Duff school assembly, and he says he still enjoys every opportunity to speak to children about his journey in life.
Personally, McIntyre says he feels quite strongly that the industry is not utilising gateway programmes as effectively as it could, to attract a young audience.
“It’s a professional industry and we need to be better promoting it to our young people as a career option,” says McIntyre.
“I think having careers day with hands-on activities such as those provided by MOTAT in Auckland, where you have a small group of 30 school kids coming in, is a superb way to go,” he says.
“When the kids come to have a go on the digger at an event, we show the children that the worksite is not a playground, we carefully define the boundaries, we give them a high-viz jacket and reinforce the basics of look, listen, and learn,” he says.
“It’s critical to commend kids for being active listeners and give positive reinforcement, especially when it comes to health and safety, knowledge such as having three points of contact when climbing on the digger, or into a truck.” he says.
“I know for a fact that some kids who I’ve had contact with through our machinery demonstrations have grown up and are working in the industry now,” he says proudly.
