Sudbury DeLong Brothers – OMA Video Contest Winners – Listened To Their Mother

(L to R) Marc Boissonneault, Xstrata Nickel, VP Sudbury Operations; David DeLong; George Burns, Goldcorp, VP Canada and U.S. Operations; Alan DeLong

View DeLong Brothers’ video

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province. To view all the winners of the So You Think You Know Mining competition, please go to OMA 2010 Video Winners.

A parent’s journalistic interview for a magazine article about the inaugural Ontario Mining Association’s So You Think You Know Mining (SYTYKM) high school video competition in 2009 provided a spark for a Sudbury student who won the Best Overall Video prize in 2010.  Adelle Larmour, a reporter with Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, produced an article on the genesis of the SYTYKM contest in the June 2009 edition of SMSJ.

“Inspired by famous Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan’s observation that the medium is the message, the OMA launched a video contest late last year to educate an unlikely audience about the mining industry,” said Ms. DeLong in the article, “Video contest introduces students to mining.”  “The SYTYKM video contest was a way to reach high school students who are interested in video making, music, or script writing, but who may know very little about where the components of their computer come from or about the different mined resources that make up the materials for many of the fundamental tools used in daily living.”

She shared her enthusiasm for her article with her youngest son, David DeLong, a grade nine student at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School.  David clearly took his Mother’s suggestion to enter SYTYKM and her encouragement to heart.  He recruited the assistance of his elder brother Alan DeLong, a grade 12 student at St. Benedict, and work on the production Lego Mining began. 

At the SYTYKM awards gala held in North Bay in June at the OMA’s “The future of mining in Ontario: Is it golden?” conference, the DeLong brothers were presented with a prestigious SYTYKM trophy and a cheque for $5,000 in capturing the Best Overall Video category.  Mother Adelle and Father Tom DeLong were on hand to help their sons celebrate their artistic achievement.  The students’ high school also received a cheque for $500 for video equipment.

The winning production Lego Mining involved intricate stop motion video using people, machines and sets constructed from Lego blocks.  The video demonstrated the value and a bit of the history of mining in their effort, which took many months to complete.  David came up with the idea to use Lego blocks and his elder brother helped him out with the project.

“I did most of the animation and came up with a few of the ideas,” said David.  “Alan helped me a lot with the ideas, the narration in the video and certain technical aspects of mining.”  The DeLong brothers agreed to split the monetary prize 50-50.  The outgoing credits of the video as a last line offer a “Special thanks to our parents!”  David and Alan have learned that listening to their Mother can reap different types of rewards.

The Best Overall Video for the 2010 SYTYKM competition and all other category winners and a video on the awards ceremony itself are now available on the OMA website www.oma.on.ca.  Click on the SYTYKM box and follow the prompts.  In the Fall watch for more information and updates on the 2011 SYTYKM high school video competition for year three.