Salem, OR — Students from Crescent Valley and Henley high schools took first place in this year’s Oregon OSHA media contest to promote young worker safety and health awareness.
For its 18th annual contest, the Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition – known as O[yes] – challenged high school students to create an ad that captures the attention of teen workers and convinces them to take Oregon OSHA’s heat-illness prevention online course. The ad could be a graphic design or video no more than 90 seconds long.
In the video category, Carlos Vanegas of Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis won first place for his “Beat the Heat” submission. The video depicts a summer camp counselor struggling on a hot day until young campers encourage him to take the training course.
Vanegas said the video was inspired by his own work as a camp counselor. “During the process of making this video, I learned that there’s a great heat safety resource that’s available and accessible, regardless of your job,” he said. “Everyone should take advantage of that.”
In the graphic design category, Pyper Fussell of Henley High School in Klamath Falls won first place for her “Don’t Be a Fool, Keep Cool!” submission. The ad depicts a conversation between two young workers, one of whom encourages the other to complete the course. It also features a QR code to access the training.
“I entered the competition because I thought it would be really cool to see my own work out in public, and especially if it’s for something as important as spreading awareness,” she said.
Both Vanegas and Fussell won $500 cash prizes, with matching prizes going to their schools. The second- and third-place winners in each category received $400 and $300 prizes, respectively.
“This was the first year we focused on heat illness prevention training, and it was very cool to see the creativity and talent of the submissions,” said Jackie Boyd, the media contest committee chair who also serves as the project manager for Oregon Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (OR-FACE) at Oregon Health and Science University. “That made it hard to choose the winners.”
