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While every child and teen is unique, they share the same need for proper physical, emotional, and intellectual development. Furthermore, they need access to the resources that can help encourage these different areas of growth. When built upon a strong foundation, the unique personalities and talents of each child and teen are then able to flourish. Valuing the unique contributions that the youngest generation has to offer society, BGC Durham is committed to equipping students with the resources needed to develop critical life skills. Located in Oshawa, Ontario, BGC Durham has been making a difference in its community since the early 1960s (“History”). The benefits that BGC Durham’s programs offer are invaluable, helping to fulfill a variety of needs through its alignment with the standards of the HIGH FIVE organization. As a result of this, the curriculums and programs that BGC Durham offers emphasize the importance of “a caring leader,” “friends,” “participation,” “play,” and “mastery” (“HIGH FIVE”). Regardless of what type of work a graduating high school student chooses to pursue, the skills that they develop at BGC Durham are applicable in any environment.

For most, maintaining a healthy lifestyle becomes increasingly difficult with age. For school-aged children and teens, gym-class participation is enforced and competitive sports are highly encouraged. However, the transition from youth to adulthood is often accompanied by increased
responsibility, a decreased amount of free time, and less accountability surrounding one’s fitness. Addressing the need for accountability and instruction, Landmark Strength has capitalized on the increasing popularity of CrossFit programs.

Located in Burlington, the Fieldhouse Pirates Baseball Club is one of Canada’s premiere baseball development programs. Offering year-round access to developmental and training programs for players from between 10 years of age and 18 years of age, the program is based in a state-of-the-art facility used specifically to groom players headed for the US collegiate ranks.

Headed up by a number of experienced coaches, the indoor facility gives players an outdoor feel for the game throughout the year.

Although operating during a time where travel has been drastically reduced, we were pleased that one of our recent projects took us through the beautiful Canadian province of Québec. Heading east of our headquarters, we travelled to beautiful Sept-Îles, which as its name would suggest, is made up of seven main islands in the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence River.

As one of the only locales in the region with a paved connection to the remainder of the province’s road network, the town is also home to a number of major iron companies. Sept-Îles has produced a number of NHL players including the great Guy Charbonneau and is the subject of the popular Gordon Lightfoot song “Seven Island Suite”.

Located in the east end of Canada’s capital city, Collège La Cité (also know as La Cité), is a beautiful 60-acre campus serving eastern Ontario as the province’s largest French language college. Established in 1989, La Cité proudly offers over 90 programming options and serves over 5,000 students in the National Capital Region.

The college is a consistent top-ranked Ontario college when it comes to student satisfaction, graduate employment rate, and overall quality of learning. The impressive results of the annual survey conducted by the province’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities speak for themselves and we were fortunate to have been involved in a big project with the school this year.

Originally founded as a non-denominational evening college to serve veterans returning from World War II, Carleton University has since blossomed into one of Canada’s most respected post-secondary institutions.

Located in the heart of Canada’s Capital, the university now serves over 31,000 students on its picturesque campus bounded by the world-famous Rideau Canal to the north and the Rideau River to the south.

Over the years, we’ve been privileged to have partnered with the school on numerous occasions and have watched it grow over in tandem with the lovely city we call home. In addition to outfitting a number of other facilities on campus with equipment over the years, we were honored to have been selected to completely redesign and install the school’s grandstand bleachers as well.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is the largest school board in Eastern Ontario and the seventh largest by school population in the Province of Ontario. With a heavy presence in the Ottawa region and close to our corporate HQ, we naturally are fortunate to do a great deal of business with this particular board.

Spanning 143 schools, it is no surprise that we have long-established relationships with key stakeholders not only from the board but also from many of the individual schools as well.

In addition to a number of upgrades performed in the latter portion of 2019, we were asked to visit three schools here in the Greater Ottawa Area that were in need of folding partition replacement. Given the often unsafe nature of outdated gymnasium dividers, it is often the mandate of schools and school boards to have these systems replaced well ahead of any problems that might surface over time with repeated use.

Nestled high in the great Canadian North, the Northwest Territories is an expansive swath of land covering nearly 1.1 million km².The remote landscape is made up of forest, mountains, tundra and a number of islands dotting Canada’s Arctic archipelago.

In the central region of this vast Canadian Territory lies the city of Yellowknife. As the only city in the territory, the province’s capital resides along the northern shores of Great Slave Lake.

It was here where we were invited to participate in one of our most recent projects. As part of the Yellowknife Education District No. 1, we were invited to Sir John Franklin High School located in the eastern portion of the city. In search of a replacement solution for an outdated partition, our team was brought in to assess its current condition and provide a long-term solution to the gymnasium’s separation needs.

As part of a mandate from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the largest school board in Eastern Ontario, we were again invited to participate in a safety-focused project. As with any piece of aging equipment, there are times when replacement simply makes the most sense and when it comes to outdated folding gym partitions, this is often the case.

These bulky structures, often installed decades prior, can become unsafe and in some cases, have proven to be fatal for students and participants. In the interest of safety, schools across North America are painfully diligent in maintaining and inspecting any of these active systems. When it is recommended that they get replaced, most don’t delay in getting the right team on-site to begin the process.

Working locally here in the Ottawa area, we were involved in another exciting project with the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB). Covering an area of roughly 2,900 square kilometers in the National Capital Region, the OCSB is home to over 4,600 staff members and operates a total of 85 institutions including 69 elementary schools, 15 high schools and one intermediate school.

As part of some sweeping upgrades to a number of the schools under the board’s management, we were invited to scope a unique project for a couple of the schools not far from our headquarters.

As is common in many aging educational facilities, some of the athletic equipment previously installed inside the gymnasium can become deemed unsafe for use by students and staff members.

One area of great concern and one which we have years of experience in handling is the demolition, removal, and replacement of outdated partition walls used to separate athletic spaces, mainly in gymnasiums.