About 160 Grade 7 students at the School District of Mystery Lake’s (SDML) six elementary school put their brains and their brawn to the test during the Skills Canada extreme sledding competitions from March 16 to March 23.
“We had lots of help from Murray McDonald and the High School Apprenticeship Program, Sam Morrison with the Northern Manitoba Sector Council, the Grade 7 teachers and various SDML staff that assisted us through the proces,” said Harlie Pruder of Skills Canada. McMunn & Yates and Gardewine also contributed to the competition.
Four-member teams were given cardboard, rope, duct tape, contact cement, and a pair of six-foot lengths of two-by-four as well as paint brushes, utility knives, staplers and a tape measure and two hours to build the best sled they could before taking them out into the snow to test them in races. Two participants pulled the sleds and the other two rode on them for the race portion of the challenge.
Judges evaluated the sleds on their designs, the quality of their construction, the participants’ teamwork and organization, the teams’ safety and cleanliness, visual appeal and speed. In addition to prizes given out for the highest points overall, there were also prizes for the best design, the best time in the race and the best job of decoration.
Westwood School students, seen here, were the last school to take part in the competition on March 23.
