Lines safety slogan wins

Haley Pickett, 13, won a $2000 cash prize for creating a safety slogan. PHOTO/GEORGE NOVAK

Coming up with a slogan about downed power lines earned an Otumoetai College student $5000.

Haley Pickett, 13, created a slogan for Powerco's safety catchphrase competition and it took out first prize - earning her a $2000 Prezzy card and $3000 for her school.

She was presented with a giant plastic Prezzy card at an assembly on Thursday.

The competition sought a slogan to use in promoting safety messages. Ones used already included "dig without plans, dig your own grave" and "DIY around power lines can be shocking".

Haley's catchphrase was: "If a power line goes down, don't hang around."

Her science teacher got the class to take part in the competition and taught lessons on being safe around power lines. "Our teacher gave us some time to think about a slogan, I didn't really have any ideas but then it just came to me. I'm not sure how I came up with it. It took quite a while."

Haley was not sure what she would spend her prize money on and said she would save it until she came up with an idea.

She said she had forgotten she had entered the competition and when the winning slogan was read out, she did not recognise it as her work.

Powerco marketing and events co-ordinator Lorraine Harding said the competition was about getting teenagers to think about safety.

"The easiest way to do that was to give a cash prize."

Ms Harding said the company had received a "huge" number of entries from Otumoetai College.

"A lot of thought was put into the safety messages, it was quite impressive."

The competition was offered to high schools within the Powerco network area. Otumoetai College teacher Kim Beaton scored a $500 Prezzy card for being the teacher with the most entries.