Students Partner With Moose Jaw Ford To Work On Go-Karts And Help A Charity

Since the Fall 15 students in Grade Nine through Grade Twelve at Vanier Collegiate and Phoenix Academy has been work on a project which has captured their dreams - and if it all works out it will be sharing their screams as they race around the track.

They even have a catchy name - the Vanier Velocity Team. They will be the only Moose Jaw team competing in the 2022 Mini Indy Race For Recovery.

As part of their elective Industrial Arts program the students have been involved in stripping down and totally rebuilding and converting three formerly gasoline powered go-karts to electrically driven.

And it is not simply a project they are undertaking in a classroom but rather they have been going out to Moose Jaw Ford where the dealership’s service department has partnered with the students as part of an after hours hands on project.

The painted shells await sponsor decaling - MJ Independent photo

“We have been working on this for quite a few months now. The students at Vanier (Collegiate) and the students at Phoenix (Academy) along with Moose Jaw Ford here we have been working with them putting go-karts together,” he said, adding “rebuilding them, tearing them apart.”

The gentleman providing the go karts has been involved in the sport of go-kart racing for a number of years.

At the present time there is a race involved with the refurbished and redesigned go-karts which Mervyn, the person behind the race, would like to see the event expand to bring in go karts from Alberta and Manitoba also.

Jordan Benesh, from Moose Jaw Ford, polishes a completed spoiler - MJ Independent photo

To help attract students to participate in the elective subject the go-karts were brought to Moose Jar in the fall of 2021. They were driven around Vanier Collegiate track in an effort to attract student interest toe be part of the program.

“Teachers drove them. Students got to watch,” he said.

For people thinking the go-karts are not a part of learning but merely a chance to get out and outfit a go-kart they would be wrong

“This is kind of like an extra curr (curriculum) kind of event so it is tied into Industrial Arts so we also have robotics but it is not the same thing,” Atkins told MJ Indpendent .

“It is actually an opportunity we don’t offer at Vanier and that is auto body and working with cars. So this is an extra-curricular opportunity.”

Doug Cambridge, service manager at Moose Jaw Ford (center) explains to Kohl Olson (left in the red hat) and Darryl Manalo (right) some of the things that need to be done - MJ Independent photo

Friday evening was an especially exciting evening for the project as after months of design, conversion, repair and hard work was hopefully going to see major signs of success.

The project may be seen as a fun activity but it is also a learning experience with the students getting hands on knowledge in design, retrofitting, project development and actually mechanical and electrical repairs and upgrades.

“Today is an exciting evening because we finally get to the put the bodies on the go-karts on their frames and hopefully if we get the frames all done we get to test drive them,” Atkins said.

It took a lot of hard work and a few new parts to bring the go karts back to life - MJ Independent photo

On Saturday June 18th at the Town and Country Mall (the former Sears parking lot) there will be a charity race held with participants throughout the province.

Proceeds from the charity race will be going to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s OSI-Can program which assists first responders who suffer from mental health issues (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Occupational Stress Injury) because of their jobs.

As part of the event there will also be a corporate challenge.

There will be opportunities for corporate sponsorships of the event with the usual donation being $1,000. The charity will be issuing tax deductible receipts.

Marek Seargeant (left) is given instructions and assistance by Mark Tumarao, from Moose Jaw Ford, on how to properly drill a hole - MJ Independent photo

Funds raised from the event will go to help Osican to help Saskatchewan’s military and first responders to not have PTSD (now being renamed to Occupational Stress Injury) and for those who do assist in their recovery.

Osican has events for sufferers of OSI which includes horse therapy.

For more information on OSI-CAN Sask check out their Facebook page by clicking here.

The students, teachers and service department staff at Moose Jaw Ford working on the project - MJ Independent photo

2022 Mini Indy Race For Recovery is Saturday June 18th from Noon - 5 pm at the Town and Country Mall parking lot