THUNDER BAY – Tech students at Westgate Collegiate have a new wheelchair-accessible van to work on, thanks to a generous donation from a former teacher.
The estate of Brian MacDonald, a longtime instructor at Lakehead Public Schools, decided to donate the vehicle in order to allow them to further their education on technology they don’t usually come across in the classroom.
The van is a wonderful teaching tool, said teacher Blaine Hill, head of the technology department at the south-side school.
“It’s just a great opportunity for our students at Westgate. The van is in wonderful shape. We’re going to have a lot of learning on it. There’s a hydraulic handicap lift on the back of the van, so the students will be able to see how that operates, and maintain that,” Hill said.
Presenting new challenges to students is key to their success beyond school, Hill added.
It’s not every day a vehicle like MacDonald’s van arrives in the tech wing, and given the aging population in Canada, it’s likely something students who go on to work in the automotive repair field are more and more likely to encounter moving forward.
“It is a hands-on experience for our students. This is how they learn. When the community donates a vehicle to us, we spend time servicing it, taking it apart, putting it back together and this is how the students learn,” Hill said.
“This is our high-skills specialist transportation program here at Westgate. These students encounter a higher level of learning, something they would experience at the college level.”
It’s the first time in about five years that students at the school have had a vehicle of this sort to work on.
Rob Dubyk, who was friends with MacDonald for about 40 years, a fellow teacher and the executor of MacDonald’s estate, said the vehicle was one of the last details that needed his attention, and said it was a pretty easy call to hand it over to the tech program at Westgate.
“Brian and I taught together on and off, over the years, at Westgate. He was a tech teacher here,” said Dubyk, who first met Hill in 1985.
“There was nothing specific (in the will), so based on some recommendations, it was decided we would donate it to the school, because Brian was a longtime scrounger and he was always looking for opportunities for the kids to work on things that they normally wouldn’t have been able to do.
“I figured this would be unique, with the (wheelchair) lift in the back, something I don’t think these students would have encountered. And I think it was appropriate to bring something of Brian’s back to where he spent most of his teaching career.”
Hill said he expects the students will get three years of work on the vehicle. At some point it may be donated to a family in need, should it still remain roadworthy.
