Thursday, October 22, 2009
Kansas City Southern Railroad held a contest among its employees and their families to come up with a new safety slogan for 2009-2010. Billie Philpot, a carman for Kansas City Southern for 10 years, decided to make it a family affair.
He went home and told his wife, Kim, and daughters MacKenzie, an eighth grader at Waskom Middle School, and Kennedie, a fourth grader at Waskom Elementary School, that he wanted them to try to come up with as many slogans as they could in one week. Throughout the week, they would jot down any safety-related slogan they thought of on a scrap of paper.
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At the end of the week, they put them all together and decided which ones they wanted to submit.
They picked the eight that they thought were best, and Billie submitted them to the contest.
Last Friday, Philpot was told that he was needed after his shift for a safety meeting but, in reality, he was given the good news that his submissions placed first and third.
The first place slogan, "It's better to lose one minute in life than to lose your life in one minute," was actually 14-year-old MacKenzie's submission. When her dad showed her the banner with her slogan she exclaimed, "Wow! That's the one I came up with!"
The slogan will be displayed prominently on banners in the railroad shops, on billboards and at the entrances to the train yard. The family received a $50 gift certificate.
The third place slogan, "Safety — Be safety smart right from the start," will be put on stickers for hard hats. It was submitted by 10-year-old Kennedie.
As a carman, Philpot is involved in safety every day.
His job requires preparing the train for the engineer, which includes inspecting coupling hoses and setting brakes and generally making the train safe so that it makes its destination.
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