In March, PECO recognized two Bucks County elementary schools with $5,000 grants for their student-created videos about natural gas safety.
Part of PECO’s Natural Gas Safety Challenge, the winning videos highlighted important steps to take when smelling the distinctive rotten-egg odor of a potential natural gas leak.
PECO delivers natural gas via underground mains in Philadelphia’s four suburban Pennsylvania counties to 548,000 customers. Natural gas has no odor, so PECO adds an odorant to make natural gas more detectable.
Students at Afton Elementary School in Yardley recorded a live-action video of a chant-based dance routine while students at J.M. Grasse Elementary School in Sellersville created a stop-motion, clay-animation.
“Safety is a core value in all of PECO’s operations, including its delivery of electric and natural gas services,” said Doreen Masalta, PECO’s director of Energy and Marketing Services. “These two videos did a masterful job of bringing attention to the first steps people should take when suspecting a natural gas leak.”
According to teacher Kristan Slota, the Afton Elementary School’s Environmental Protectors Club will use their funds to buy items for the club’s community outreach events, gardening tools, and hands-on kits from National Energy Education Development Project to help students learn more about energy conservation.
Similarly, the J.M. Grasse Elementary School will use its $5,000 grant to add sensory tools and flexible seating to classrooms to further aid students managing their emotions and executive functioning skills, according to teacher Chelsea Lewis. She also plans to obtain resources for the school’s STEM lab, including building materials, robotics kits, and technology-based design tools for projects that increase students’ math and science skills.
PECO piloted the Natural Gas Safety Challenge, a safety video contest, this winter with elementary schools in its natural gas service territory.
To learn more about natural gas safety precautions and steps in the event of an emergency, visit peco.com/GasSafety.
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