Safety took center stage during O'Connell Electric Company's Seventh Annual Safety Picnic on July 25.
The picnic puts an emphasis on how to keep its employees' family and friends, clients and vendors safe. It was built around the picnic's motto, "safety first, last and always!"
About 950 attended the event, which was held at the Pinnacle Athletic Campus. It not only featured food and fun, but also safety demonstrations from several vendors, and speeches from Keynote Speaker Bruce Bolger, a certified safety professional, International IBEW Third District Executive Vice President Mike Welsh, and Wesley Wheeler, the National Safety Director of NECA.
"Safety is for everybody," said O'Connell Electric Company Manager David Emmi. "The Safety Picnic has evolved as the company has grown and it has almost doubled in size."
O'Connell Electric Company recognized Foreman Brad Galton with a safety award after extinguishing a fire on a roof near a generator on the roof of a hospital in Syracuse, NY. Galton was preparing the leave the job site, where his crew had just installed a rooftop generator. Galton reached the roof and extinguished the fire prior to the local fire department arriving, preventing it from spreading further.
Technicians Jeff McCann and Henry Marrero also recieved awards for performing the Heimlich Maneuver while a woman was choking at a restaurant. Marrero performed the Heimlich Maneuver while McCann kept the rest of her party calm during the ordeal.
O'Connell Electric Company also awarded the Safety Leadership Award to Corporate Safety Manager Bill Sandvik. At the end of the year, Sandvik, who has been instrumental in many of the company's safety initiatives and has mentored its safety team, plans to retire after 22 years of service.
The Safety Picnic came to be after a company safety meeting in 2013, when someone had suggested creating a tradeshow-style safety event, combined with a picnic. Since then, it has grown to become a fun and educational event that features training breakout sessions and more.
For a recap video of O'Connell Electric Company's Safety Picnic, click here.
