Oregon students honored with Workers’ Memorial Scholarships
Awards further student achievement

Many children in Oregon have faced losing a parent to a workplace death or a life-altering injury. The loss can have a profound effect on a family’s ability to finance higher education. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) Workers’ Memorial Scholarship program provides an opportunity to help surviving family members reach their educational goals.

Oregon OSHA, a division of DCBS, will honor recipients of the Workers’ Memorial Scholarship during a public ceremony at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Room 260 of the Labor and Industries Building in Salem.

The recipients include:

Marissa Parr, Jefferson

A 2011 graduate of Jefferson High School, Parr is studying social sciences at Willamette University.

Parr’s father is wheelchair bound after suffering a debilitating back injury in 1991. Parr is receiving a $1,000 award and is a past scholarship recipient.

Kassandra McCabe, Eugene

McCabe is a 2014 graduate of Marist High School and plans to attend Oregon State University this fall. She hopes to become a surgeon or physical therapist and is majoring in pre-medicine.

McCabe’s father became paralyzed and later blind following a logging accident in 2002. She is receiving a $1,250 award.

Two other award recipients want to remain anonymous.

“The award can never replace their loss but it is nice to provide some support to individuals who have suffered a family tragedy,” said Oregon OSHA Administrator Michael Wood.

Award recommendations are made by Oregon OSHA’s Safe Employment Education and Training Advisory Committee, an advisory group with members from business, organized labor, and government. Oregon OSHA presents the awards annually to help in the postsecondary education of spouses or children of permanently and totally disabled or fatally injured workers. The 1991 Legislature established the Workers’ Memorial Scholarship at the request of the Oregon AFL-CIO, with support from Associated Oregon Industries.

The Workers’ Memorial Scholarship is open to any high school graduate, graduating high school senior, GED recipient, or current college undergraduate or graduate student who is a dependent or spouse of an Oregon worker who has been fatally injured or permanently disabled while on the job.

Applicants must be a dependent or spouse of a fatally injured worker, or the dependent or spouse of an Oregon worker who has incurred a permanent total disability and whose claim for workers’ compensation benefits has been accepted.

Interest earned on a DCBS fund derived from Oregon OSHA civil fines and penalties funds the awards.

Oregon OSHA, a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, enforces the state’s workplace safety and health rules and works to improve workplace safety and health for all Oregon workers. The Department of Consumer and Business Services is Oregon’s largest business regulatory and consumer protection agency. For more information, visit www.orosha.org.