Engineering Now .: Volume 4 - Edition 1 .: September 2007

An Epic end for the Epic Pull



After a summer on the road, 25 recreational vehicle (RV) pulls across the country, and over $50,000 in donations raised to battle Cystic Fibrosis (CF), Western’s Epic Pull team pulled into London on Saturday, September 8 for the very last time.

Led by Bill Smolders, a recent Western Engineering graduate, the Epic Pull was a new and innovative fundraiser designed to generate excitement, awareness and funds for CF research. The fundraiser consisted of 25 RV pulls in cities coast to coast across Canada this past summer. The events attracted a great deal of attention from coast to coast and as a tie-in to Western’s annual Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser, Shinerama, the final pull took place at Western.

“Every single person who made any contribution, big or small, to this project needs to know how much his or her support is appreciated,” says Smolders. “We saw the appreciation in the hundreds of little smiling CF kids that pulled the RV, in their parents who are so grateful for what we did, and in the eyes of Laura Reid (President of the CCFF) who started crying when she finally got to see us in Vancouver.”

The final day of the Epic Pull raised $2,347 bringing the grand total raised to $50,573,58. Although the team fell short of their goal to raise $52,365 (a figure representing 52 weeks, 365 days to add a year to the life expectancy of people with CF), the team did meet their goals to:

  • Strengthen hope for those with Cystic Fibrosis
  • Touch the lives of those who love and loved
  • Make tens of thousands of people aware
  • Prove to Canada that a 1984 motor home could make it coast to coast

    To read about the Epic Pull’s adventures and accomplishments, please visit the Epic Pull blog at http://www.epicpull.ca/. 

    Photos

    • Also from this web page:

    Contact

    .: Allison Stevenson
    Spencer Engineering Building, Room 2074
    Telephone: (519) 850-2917 Fax: (519) 661-3808
    contactwe@eng.uwo.ca