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November 15, 2021
Growing the Next Generation of Safe Workers
It’s often said, that to create a culture of safety, you must build it from the ground up. Landon Stubbs is doing just that. As the woods and building trades teacher at Great Falls High School, he’s not only tasked to teach constructions skills, but keep his students safe in the process.
One way he keeps his students safe is through Montana State Fund’s (MSF) Growing a Safer Montana Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Grant program. The program awards middle and high school classrooms up to $850 in PPE like eye protection, hearing protection, gloves, and welding gear.
The PPE program is part of MSF’s Growing a Safer Montana initiative to improve Montana’s workplace safety culture. The initiative teaches and reinforces positive safety in the classroom before young students enter Montana’s workforce. This is the third year Stubbs has received the grant.
“For me and the students, it has helped create a new safety culture that has been lacking in our state. There needs to be a change in our culture to not only promote safety but make it a priority,” said Stubbs.
In addition to Great Falls High School, 36 other high schools and 11 middle school classrooms received safety gear. At the start of the 2021 school year, MSF partnered with A&M Fire and Safety in Butte to deliver 2,552 pairs of safety glasses and over 1,400 pairs of gloves to the eligible classrooms
Selected classrooms cab also use a portion of their grant money to order specialized safety equipment such as machine guards, welding curtains or specialized PPE.
Since the program’s 2017 inception, over $100,000 worth safety gear has benefited 11,000 students.
However, MSF realizes there is still work to be done. Montana’s injury rate has remained consistent from 2018 to 2019 at 3.9 injuries for every 100 workers. This back to back incident rate is higher than the national average of 2.8 for every 100 workers.
MSF is hopeful the Growing a Safer Montana initiative will continue to be a catalyst to lower injury rates for our next generation of Montana’s workers.
2021 High School Grant Recipients
School | Class | Instructor |
Arlee High School | Welding/Building Trades | Eric Koetter |
Belfry High School | Welding/ Ag Mechanics | Kasey McClane |
Belgrade High School | Welding/ Woods | Eric Kinnaman |
Big Sky High School | Welding | Caleb Olson |
Bozeman High School | Woods | Rebecca Brown |
Bozeman High School | Auto Tech | Carl Poeschl |
Bozeman High School | Metals | Rebecca Brown |
Chester-Joplin-Inverness | Welding/ Woodworking | Joel Steinmetz |
CMR – Great Falls | Pre-construction/ Residential Electrical | Karl Berg |
Conrad High School | Building Trades | Jim Carroll |
Cut Bank | Welding | Brian Hayes |
Darby High School | Construction Trades | Michael Meves |
Dawson High School | Ag Mechanics/ Welding/ Metals | Leanne Hoagland |
East Helena High School | Welding/ Carpentry/ Small Engines/ CAD | Casey Harris |
Gallatin High School | Metals/ Woods/ Auto | Matthew Bakken |
Glacier High School | Woods 1, 2, 3 | Richard Peters |
Great Falls High School | Residential Electricity | Everett Pate |
Great Falls High School | Woods/ Construction/ Welding/ Automotive/ Electrical/ Drafting | Landon Stubbs |
Hamilton High School | Construction Tech/ Welding Fab | Russ Fisk |
Havre High School | Construction Tech/ Woodworking 1, 2 | Micky Haney |
Havre High School | Auto Tech | Tyler Kropf |
Hays Lodgepole Schools | Welding | Susan Werk |
Helena High School | Welding | Cindy Galbavy |
Hellgate High School | Building Trades 1, 2, 3 | Charles Rinehart |
Jordan Public Schools | Building Trades/ Welding | Patrick Garner |
Paris Gibson Education Center | Auto/ Welding | Joe Wilkins |
Powell County High Schools | Cabinetry/ Carpentry | Clint Stevenson |
Rapelje High School | Woodworking/ Welding | Joseph Schladweiler |
Red Lodge High School | Woodworking/ Carpentry | James Sigl |
Red Lodge High School | Welding/ Automotive | Justin Elton |
Sentinel High School | Welding/ Carpentry/ Automotive PLTW | David Burtch |
Turner High School | Vo-Ag | Tony Warren |
Park High School | Industrial Technology | Jamie Isaly |
Superior High School | Construction/ Welding/ Woods | Jeff Schultz |
Colstrip High School | Ag Ed | Katie Mitchell |
Custer County High School | Ag Ed | Todd Lackman |
Colstrip High School | Ag and industry ed | Todd Lackman |
2021 Middle School Grant Recipients
School | Class | Instructor |
Arlee | woods | Eric Koetter |
Charlo Schools | Shop | Stan Atchley |
Chester- Joplin- Inverness | Shop | Joel Steinmetz |
Darby Middles School | CAD/ CNC | Thomas Wood |
East Valley Middle School | Tech education/ Industrial Tech | Cory Horne |
Havre Middle School | Industril arts | Austin Ouellette |
Manhatten Middle School | Shop | Josh Mostad |
Plains Middle School | Technology Education | Kyle Mitchell |
Poplar Middle School | Woodworking | Joseph Hammar |
Turner Schools | Vo-Ag | Tony Warren |