SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Paolo Dal Bello holds an X-ray of his shattered hip as he details his injuries after a 3,500-pound crate crushed him at his workplace.

A screen shot of the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission award-winning commercial featuring Yellowknifer Paolo Dal Bello. - Photo courtesy of WSCC

The Yellowknife man stares matter-of-factly into the camera and tells viewers how he underwent four major surgeries which left him with 26 screws and three plates in his body.

"They reconstructed my hip, my knee, my ankle and my urethra," Dal Bello states, the background black against him.

His story, and that of fellow Yellowknifer Jamie Stringer, are the basis of two one-minute-long commercials produced by the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission of the NWT and Nunavut.

Together, the simple, yet compelling, commercials recently won big, snagging first place in the TV/radio broadcast advertising category at the 2009 American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds (AASCIF) Communication Awards.

The award puts the NWT and Nunavut board at the top of the pile among countless workers' compensation insurance boards in the U.S. - the association spans across 27 states - and 10 workers' compensation boards in Canada.

It's nice to know work being produced in the North is causing international judges to take notice and give praise, said Dave Grundy, WSCC's vice-president of corporate communications and planning services.

The award "gave us a really good feeling that we are giving the North, workers of the North, employers of the North, an opportunity to make same changes here through the testimony of these two young men," he said.

It's not the first time the WSCC has placed at the AASCIF awards. Last year, the board took first under the audio visual category and the year before that the board took home second place under the overall campaign category.

But building great safety campaigns is not about winning awards, said Grundy.

"We're pleased that we won but the most important thing is not that you win awards, it's that the message gets out there," he said.

"It's pleasing for all of us out here at WSCC that people outside of our organization, outside of our country, look at this and they see the message that we were trying to put out," he added.

Grundy is hoping the prestige of winning the big award will bring more attention to the commercials, and to the board's "Don't be a Number" campaign, which focuses on educating young workers on safety.

"It does bring attention," he said.

The commercials, which were designed by Northern-based communications company Outcrop, can be viewed at WSCC's "Don't be a Number" website.

Every year approximately 455 young workers are injured in the NWT and Nunavut. Both Stringer and Dal Bello were 22 when they suffered their injuries.