The Best Seats
In The House

Nestled on the Canadian east coast lies the historic island of Newfoundland. With one of North America’s oldest European settlements dating from the early 16^thcentury, the island is marred with a colourful history that is still visible today.

Heading southwest from the province’s capital of St. John’s lies the quaint city of Mount Pearl – a suburb of the nearby capital city. As the second most populous city on the island, Mount Pearl shares much of the rich history with its neighbouring city and today the region serves as one of the most popular tourist destinations on Canada’s eastern seaboard.

One of our recent projects landed us in coastal New England, home of chowder, warm hospitality and some of the world’s most formidable sports franchises. While the region spans a total of six diverse U.S. states, this project took place in the picturesque state of Maine.

Located in Westbrook, a suburb of Portland, is the Spring Harbor Hospital, a 100-bed non-profit psychiatric hospital offering services for both children and adults.

Part of Maine Behavioral Healthcare, the facility has three adult units totalling 60 beds, a child unit with 14 beds, an adolescent unit with 14 beds and a 12-bed unit for patients with developmental disorders.

After some unfortunate water damage to certain areas of the hospital, the facility was undergoing some fairly heavy-duty renovations. During the process, stakeholders from within the organization got in contact with members of our team in search of fire-rated wall padding for one of the rooms in the hospital.

Located in eastern Nebraska lies the small town of Columbus, an area rich with history and located close to Omaha, the state’s largest city.

Much like Omaha, Columbus was originally a pioneer town, offering early settlers excellent land for crops and access to the Loup and Platte rivers. Today, Columbus is a tight-knit community of roughly 22,000 residents that boasts over 20 city parks and public facilities offering residents the very best the area has to offer.

As part of some upgrades to one of the city’s largest parks, municipal officials reached out to our team through our partners at Crouch Recreation in Nebraska. Dubbed the “picnic capital of Nebraska,” Pawnee Park boasts over 150 acres of space along the Loup River that has become a favourite family location among visitors and residents alike.

Serving nearly 20,000 students in central Ontario, the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board(HPEDSB) operates 39 elementary schools and eight secondary schools throughout the region.

Several of the schools in the district have been in operation for many years, serving many students who are now working professionals. As such, some of the equipment located within those schools are dated and in some cases, dangerous for students to use.

One such location with a storied past is the Trenton High School. Located in the gymnasium of the school was a large and dated folding partition that had been used to separate the space for a number of years. While the partition did a great job fulfilling its purpose, the unit had become not only cumbersome to operate but downright dangerous.

Let’s face it, as a business owner, purchaser or facility operator, it’s hard not to notice the increase in the cost of doing business. While many of these rising costs are the direct reflection of a strong and working economy, they do require those in purchasing positions to strategically plan and spend their budgets accordingly.

One such cost that has risen dramatically over the past decade or so is that of shipping. With the rise of online shopping and e-commerce, goods are being shipped at a record pace across the US and Canada. Pair that with volatile oil and gas prices and you have a perfect storm for rising costs associated with shipping by sea, ground and air.

When it comes to our business, traditionally, we do the majority of our shipping on the ground, depending on the location the goods are to be delivered to. While we explore alternative shipping options when shipping overseas, to the Middle East or to the Caribbean, here in North America, we mainly ship the old-fashioned way: by ground.

Recognized as an International Centre of Excellence thanks to its fully accessible design and inclusive environment, the Abilities Centre truly is one of a kind.

Located in the Greater Toronto Area in beautiful Whitby, Ontario, the 125,000 square foot facility boasts sports, fitness, arts, and life skills programming for people of all ages and abilities.

In addition to a board room, games room, lounge, theatre, 200m indoor track, aerobics rooms and a universally accessible exercise area, the facility is home to three regulation-size basketball courts.

This is where our team was fortunate enough to lend a hand to this amazing facility. Given the variety of participants that frequent the basketball courts, the existing portable backstops were no longer deemed inclusive for all to enjoy. Those who enjoyed the sport from a wheelchair or suffered from other disabilities soon found these floor-mounted systems to be hazardous to their safety.

Known as an on-island suburb, the small town of Montreal West is a picturesque community that is comprised largely of young families. With a bustling downtown core business area spanning Westminster Avenue between Milner and Cruzon, Montreal West’s downtown is still dominated by small, locally-owned businesses.

Having worked closely with the primarily English-speaking community over the past number of years, we were once again called upon by their parks and recreation department. Dominated by family-oriented activities, Montreal West is home to a number of community operated sports fields. As part of the updating process that many communities go through over the course of history, we were once again tapped to supply some bleacher seating for use at one of the community’s sports fields.

Having a strong partnership with the Anglophone East School District on Canada’s East Coast, our team was once again called upon for another necessary but unique project. The school, established in 1981, is comprised of both a middle school (Salisbury Middle School) and a high school (JMA Armstrong High School).

Given the fact that the school is, in fact, two schools under one roof, the gymnasium is obviously a busy place. Serving as home for Cougar athletics, sports programming is a large part of student life at JMA Armstrong.

As with many retractable bleacher upgrades that our team is involved with, the school had a set of retractable bleachers previously installed that were unfortunately dated and deemed no longer safe. As building codes continue to be updated across Canada and the United States, many of these older wooden systems are in need of replacement and we were once again, happy to answer the call.

A part of the Ktunaxa Nation, ʔaq̓am is a member community based on the values of family, unity and cooperation. Taking pride in their heritage, language and culture, the community operates a number of programs and services including an elementary school, daycare, after school and summer school programming, community health and education services, economic development, lands and natural resource management and housing and administrative services.

Accounting for the largest population of all Ktunaxa Nation Bands, the ʔaq̓am community also occupies over 18,000 acres of land under management.Located in the Rocky Mountain Trench in the East Kooteney region of southeastern British Columbia, roughly ten minutes north of Cranbrook.

If you’ve been following us over the past few months,you know that a select number of our team members were lucky enough to spend some time on the beautiful island of Barbados this winter.

While it certainly wasn’t a typical visit filled with island-themed libations and hammocks strung between palm trees, it was an experience our organization won’t soon forget. While the warm weather and palm trees were awelcome addition to the project, the hard work started many months ago when we were approached by the Barbados Football Association and key stakeholders at FIFA.

The planning process was intense as anyone would expect and one that wouldn’t be complete without a multitude of moving parts. Towards the end of 2017, all of the necessary parts and plans came together and the project was officially underway.