First Safety Fest starts Sept. 11 at New Hope Center

The first Oak Ridge Safety Fest will be held Sept. 11-14 at the New Hope Center and other venues.

The purpose of Safety Fest is to offer free training to promote safety and good health at work and home, a press release said. It is sponsored by the Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership.

At least 30 courses, all taught by experienced volunteer trainers, will be offered for free to anyone who registers at www.safetyfest-oakridge.org, the release said.

Among the courses offered are:

• CPR and First Aid Certification and Refresher,
• OSHA Construction 10-hour,
• Electrical Safety,
• Emergency Response Plans,
• Hazard Recognition and Mapping,
• Hearing Conservation,
• Welding Safety,
• Overhead Crane Operational Safety,
• Combustible Dust,
• Confined Space,
• Office Safety,
• Scaffolding,
• Forklift Operation,
• Trenching Competent Person, and
• Job Hazard Analysis.

“We are very excited about our first Safety Fest, and we appreciate the support of the safety community as we plan this very extensive event,” said Jenny Freeman, ORBSP chair.

Safety Fest will kick off on Tuesday, Sept. 11, with an event at the New Hope Center featuring speakers from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, Tennessee Occupational Health and Safety Administration, and local community leaders. The kick-off event is an opportunity for the community to reflect on the events of 9/11 and to learn about workplace fatalities in Tennessee in 2011 and what TOSHA is doing to prevent such accidents, according to event planners.

Training will take place Tuesday, Sept. 11, through Friday, Sept. 14, and will be held, in addition to the New Hope Center, at the EnergX Training Center, Roane State Community College, and the Tennessee Technology Center in Harriman.

“We’re trying to provide as much hands-on training as possible,” said Michelle Register, one of the event coordinators, “so we’re holding classes where we can use cranes and forklifts and whatever we need to deliver the most effective training to as many people as possible.”

Freeman praised the work of companies and organizations that helped set up the Safety Fest or sponsored it.

“We’re trying to make the region around Oak Ridge the safest place to work in the Southeast, so we’d like to attract those companies that perhaps don’t have the revenue to pay for extensive training for their employees,” she said.

The press release said a safety fair will be held in conjunction with Safety Fest, where safety-related vendors can purchase a booth or exhibit for $200. Exhibits will be set up in the lobby of the New Hope Center.

“We want to stress that this training is free of charge and participants will receive a certificate at the end of the courses,” Register said. “Oak Ridge is a great place to hold Safety Fest because of all the work on the Oak Ridge Reservation and other industrial sites throughout the region. We hope to raise the bar of safety for everyone by training as many people as possible in as many courses as we could offer.”