Corvallis, Portland, Bend teams also earn prizes

Salem, OR — Eden McCall, a student at Sprague High School in Salem, won $500 for her first-place video titled “The Silent Condition” in an annual safety video contest that promotes young worker safety and the importance of speaking up.

The video, which deftly blends voiceover narration, body language, and props, features a teen worker who suffers from being silent on the job and, as a result, gets needlessly exposed to safety hazards. However, with knowledge, confidence, and “an extra 10 decibels,” as the narrator puts it, teen workers have the power to overcome the silent condition, and to speak up and work safe.

Sprague High School also won a matching amount of prize money.

McCall said she just focused on producing an original, high-quality video that brought attention to job safety for young workers. To win first prize, she said, was surprising and exciting.

During the development of her video, McCall said, she learned that “there are solutions for hazardous work environments, and what I tried to highlight in my video was to be knowledgeable about worker safety practices and laws, confident in your ability to speak up in a bad situation, and if necessary, to raise your voice to stay safe in the workplace.”

A second-place prize was awarded, and two teams tied for third place and won prizes. They are as follows:

Second place ($400)
“Safety Joe”
Crescent Valley High School, Corvallis
Created by: Alex Vartanov, Daniel Mason.

Third place ($300)
“Welcome to Recyc Corp”
Parkrose High School, Portland
Created by: Chad McAdams, Trevaughn Terry, Juney Prasad, Ashton Caudle, Calvin Haynes, Gabe Gothro, Jacob Mansfield, Christian Olney, Kyle Noble, Peter Phan, Eddie Penalver, Sarah Wilson, Jade Spencer, Waymond Crowder, Mary Dinh, Brianna Benjamin, Mason Swinehart, J.R. Sanders, Lauren Robanske, Phong Ta, Janos Wilson, James Rosengrant, Josh Weir, Franco Duran.

Third place ($300)
“Memories”
Summit High School, Bend
Created by: Cedar Vickery, Jadon Berg.

The creators of the top videos were presented their awards on Saturday during a special screening at Northern Lights Theatre and Pub in Salem. Sponsored by the Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O[yes]), the annual video contest focuses on teen workers, who are twice as likely to be injured on the job, according to federal studies.

The contest is designed to increase awareness about safety for young workers, with the theme of “Speak up. Work safe.” Students were asked to create a video with a teen job safety and health message and were judged on creativity, production value, youth appeal, and the overall safety and health message.

All of the winning videos, as well as the other finalists, are available for viewing on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM75uPd4sBhyrd3HoiMliiaX_EhuJCn6y

The Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O[yes]) organizes the contest. The sponsors are Oregon OSHA, SAIF Corporation, local Oregon chapters of the American Society of Safety Engineers, the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU, Hoffman Construction, Central Oregon Safety & Health Association, the SHARP Alliance, the Construction Safety Summit, Northern Lights Theatre and Pub, and SafeBuild Alliance.