Co-op News
Best Photo: Shock and Awe in Texas
Editor’s note: Each week, ECT.coop will feature award-winning photos, and the stories behind them, from the 2011 Spotlight on Excellence national awards program, which recognizes outstanding work by co-op communicators. The program is sponsored by the Council of Rural Electric Communicators and NRECA.
The look on the faces of a group of Malakoff, Texas, schoolchildren says it all. (Photo By: Jeff Jordan)
Jeff Jordan of Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative, Kaufman, Texas, won an award of merit for “A Shocking Display,” which has appeared in several co-op publications, as well as its website.
The photo shows a scene familiar to many co-ops: a lineworker demonstrating the dangers of electricity before a group of schoolchildren.
But what’s different about this photo, taken at an elementary school in Malakoff, Texas, is the background. Behind then-lineman Steve Estes’ impressive display of a flaming arc of electricity are schoolchildren, their mouths agape.
“I think you can derive from the expression on their faces that they’re really enjoying the presentation,” deadpanned Jordan, the co-op’s marketing and communications coordinator. “Their expressions really added to the photo.”
A first-time Spotlight winner, Jordan snapped the photo during Estes’ demonstration of a hot wire touching human skin. Thankfully, Estes used a hot dog inserted into a lineman’s glove to make his point.
“The hot dog is supposed to be a finger,” said Jordan. “Steve used a hot stick to draw an arc through the hot dog in the glove. When he was done, he held it up and you could see that it was fried.”
While the blackened hot dog is not visible in the photo, the looks on students’ faces—some awed, some shocked—are very much on display.
The 2012 competition is currently accepting entries. For more information, registered users of cooperative.com should go to www.cooperative.com/spotlight.