‘Tis the Season

Members of the Safety+ steering committee present donations to the Salvation Army. Pictured (l.-r.)—Doug Beck, Doug Hardaway, Gabe Van Horn, Salvation Army’s Major Hopping, Patricia Tookes and Cody Hitt.

December 5, 2018

During the 2R20 maintenance and refueling outage, Beaver Valley employees stepped up in a big way – all in the name of safe operations. And that safe behavior is now going to help people in need.

The site’s Safety+ (“Safety Plus”) Steering Committee changed the way they acknowledged meeting weekly Safety+ observation goals, leading to the overall outage goal of 600 total completed Safety+ observations.

“This year, we chose to mark Safety+ observation milestones by donating to Project Bundle Up, a joint effort between the Salvation Army and WTAE-TV Channel 4,” said Jim Graf, superintendent, Beaver Valley Work Planning. The program provides new winter coats, hats, scarves, mittens and boots to thousands of underprivileged children and senior citizens in western Pennsylvania each year. “It seemed to make sense given the time of year and the immediate difference it makes in the community.”

At the end of 2R20, the committee tallied up the observations and announced the site had far surpassed their original goal with close to 800 completed observations!

Jim explained that to track progress during the outage, the committee would purchase one new coat for every 25 observations received, until hitting the 600 goal. “As we progressed toward our goal, we hung each coat up on a rack in the entrance to our facility. This effort amounted to 24 new coats being purchased initially, with several more purchased as the total observations climbed. Along with that, several departments within our plant decided to pledge/collect money to donate to the cause, if Safety+ met its observation goal.” The total monetary donation collected came to $7,081 plus almost 30 new coats. The observation program highlights the positive safe behaviors exhibited in the field by the workforce. According to Safety+ steering committee member Gabe Van Horn, “While most safety programs focus on pointing out unsafe behaviors, our observations serve to recognize and encourage the correct safe behaviors exhibited while working.”

Normally, said Gabe, if the site meets its outage goal, there is a site-wide celebration to thank everyone, and there is typically a giveaway or free ice cream. This year, instead of focusing on a celebration for employees, the steering committee opted to help a local charitable organization.

Gabe Van Horn shows Major Hopping the coats purchased during 2R20 as part of the site’s participation in Project Bundle Up.