Red River College’s winning streak continued at the North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Awards this month, where its safety and prevention efforts won Best Overall honours at both the national and provincial level.

The national award was handed out on Sept. 11, 2012, at the annual Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE) Conference in Niagara Falls, Ont. The provincial award was received on Sept. 17, at the Workers Compensation Board in Winnipeg.

“NAOSH Week provides us with a valuable opportunity to celebrate our ongoing commitment to maintaining and improving a safe and healthy workplace,” said Daryl Nielsen (above, right), Manager, Environmental Health and Safety Services at RRC. “Our safety culture is promoted through senior management commitment, strong safety leadership and effective engagement with our employees, with a goal to instill the same commitment in our students to carry high standards and values into other workplaces.”

This marks the second year in a row RRC has won a double-dose of honours, having picked up a national award in 2011 for “Best Representation of a Theme,” and a provincial nod in the “Most Innovative” category.

Plans are already underway for next year’s NAOSH Week, which will be celebrated across Canada May 5-11, 2013. Next year’s theme is “Safety & Health: A Commitment for Life! Are You As Safe As You Think?”

RRC’s Joint Workplace Safety and Health Committee, NAOSH Planning Committee and Environmental Health and Safety Services department wish to thank everyone who participated in NAOSH Week events, and who continue to demonstrate their commitment to safety in the workplace and at home.

Click here for more information about this year’s awards, and here for more information about NAOSH Week.

Red River College Dean Graham Thomson will be among the 50-plus business leaders, celebs and community-minded decision makers taking part in this week’s CEO Sleepout, in support of Downtown Winnipeg BIZ’s Change for the Better campaign.

Thomson, Dean of the School of Business & Applied Arts at RRC, will spend this Thursday night camped out at the corner of Portage and Main, as a means of raising funds for homeless employment programs and raising awareness of issues related to homelessness and poverty in Winnipeg.

“Obviously this is just a gesture — since it’s entirely unlike what people face out in the streets every night,” says Thomson. “But any little thing we can do to help draw awareness to the issue is good.”

Last year’s inaugural CEO Sleepout raised over $100,000 for the Change for the Better initiative, which helps to support homeless people as they transition from the streets to positions of paid employment.

Proceeds from this year’s event will also support Siloam Mission’s Mission Off the Streets (MOST) team, which employs individuals in keeping the downtown clean while building the life skills, work experience and confidence to help them in finding a full-time job. Read More →

Members of RRC’s Plane Pull 2011 team.

Red River College is proud to play host to United Way Winnipeg’s ninth annual Plane Pull.

The event, taking place Friday, Sept. 21, at RRC’s Stevenson Campus, will draw more than 40 workplace teams, whose members will attempt to pull either a 191,000-lb Boeing 727 or a 90,000-lb DC-10. Red River College will have teams competing in the Plane Pull, so feel free to show your support!

The competition gets underway at 11a.m., following the announcement of this year’s fundraising goal by United Way Campaign Chair Doug Finkbeiner.

Click here for more information on Plane Pull 2012.

Red River College’s Cultural and Language Mentor Program has extended the deadline for student, staff and faculty volunteers interested in mentoring an immigrant or international student.

The Mentor Program is a local/global partnership that pairs immigrant and international students with Canadian-raised students and staff for friendship, English language practice and cross-cultural exchanges.

The program helps immigrant and international students adjust to life in Canada, make friends with other Canadians, improve their English and cross-cultural communication skills, and develop the skills required for success in their studies and in the workplace.

Participating mentors, meanwhile, get the chance to make new friends while gaining valuable experience working with culturally diverse individuals and preparing them for success in a global work environment.

Applications are being accepted until Friday, Sept. 28. Click here to fill out an online application.

The program requires a 10-hour commitment over the Fall semester, which includes a one-hour orientation meeting, plus seven hours of meeting time with their partner. Mentors receive support, guidance, and — best of all — tickets to local events and activities.

Click here to see a video about the program. For more information, contact Jacqueline Wood, Mentor Program Coordinator, at 204-632-3847.

A classic car built by Red River College students has helped to raise over $60,000 in support of young Manitoba residents pursuing training and accreditation in the area of skilled trades and technology.

The car, a replica 1933 Modified Ford, will be raffled off this week as part of a fundraiser launched through a partnership between Skills Canada Manitoba and the College. It was built from a kit purchased by Skills Manitoba, and assembled by more than 100 RRC students and apprentices in a number of trades and technology programs, including Automotive Pre-Employment, Automotive and Motorvehicle Apprenticeship, and Collision Repair and Refinishing.

Students and apprentices worked under the supervision of instructors from the College, putting their theoretical skills into practice by taking the car from its bare bones early stage to road-worthy completion

“The significance of this car is huge for us,” says Neil Cooke, chair of Transportation, Math and Sciences at RRC. “Students can apply the skills they have mastered, but more importantly they take pride and ownership in the vehicle.”

The car’s new owner will be drawn at 6 p.m., on Tuesday, Sept. 18, during a reception at RRC’s Heavy Equipment Transportation Centre. Read More →

Creative Communications instructor Dan Vadeboncoeur
(Photo: Bernice Pontanilla/Metro Winnipeg)

Creative Communications students from Red River College took to the airwaves this week, to debut an online radio station that allows them to embrace new broadcasting technology.

The newly-launched Red River Radio provides CreComm (and other current RRC) students with production, programming and on-air training opportunities, while filling the void left when former campus station KICK-FM folded earlier this year.

The new streaming station will adhere to a similar format as KICK-FM — offering both news/talk and musical programming — and will continue to serve as a valuable showcase for local folk and indie-rock acts.

“We want to offer our students the chance to have everything they had at KICK-FM,” CreComm instructor Dan Vadeboncoeur (shown above) told Metro Winnipeg this week. “We’ve gone from over the airwaves to the biggest medium in the world.”

Vadeboncoeur and other CreComm instructors are currently fielding pitches from students before settling on a programming schedule. Any current RRC student — regardless of program of study — can pitch an idea for a show.

To listen online, visit radio.rrc.ca. Students interested in hosting a show on Red River Radio can contact Vadeboncoeur at dvadeboncoeur@rrc.ca.

Join us at the Exchange District Campus next Thursday, Sept. 6, as we celebrate the launch of Changing People’s Lives: An Illustrated History of Red River College.

Written by former RRC Dean Dave Williamson, Changing People’s Lives traces the College’s development from a small industrial training centre in the 1930s to one of Canada’s leading institutes of applied learning.

Along the way, Williamson (shown in grey, with RRC Board member Don Robertson) shares stories and photos of the many important people and projects that have driven the College’s growth.

Changing People’s Lives is available now for $34.95 from RRC’s Bookstores, at both the Notre Dame and Exchange District Campuses.

Date: Thu., Sept. 6, 2012
Time: 6pm – 7:30pm
Location: Roblin Centre Atrium, 160 Princess Street

Join the event page on Facebook.

Photo by Mike Deal, Winnipeg Free Press.

A Red River College instructor is one of two local artists paying tribute to the importance of libraries via a newly-unveiled public installation.

Darren Stebeleski, who teaches Graphic Design at RRC, is the visionary behind Sentinel of Truth, a public sculpture installation at Millennium Library Park that acts as a monument to libraries as defenders of freedom of speech.

The installation features text excerpts from 18 books — many by authors whose words have been censored or silenced — that are etched into recessed stainless steel panels set into a 50-metre steel wall.

“As a society, our ideas and our truths are ever fragile, open to corruption and attack through censorship,” says Stebeleski of the work. “The existence of a free and open library guarantees their safety and their dissemination.”

“Our stories are more than diversion; they are reflections of ourselves, explaining our lives to us. And our libraries are more than buildings that house books; they are unflagging shields protecting armouries of fearless truth. We must never fail to watch over them, as they watch over us.”

According to Alison Gillmor, arts columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, “Stebeleski references the power and palpable physicality of books by using the solidity of steel. But he is also aware of the fragility of free speech … With its changing nature, Sentinel reminds us that we can’t take reading for granted.”

Stebeleski’s work is part of the Winnipeg Arts Council’s public arts initiative, as is its accompanying installation — emptyful, by Vancouver artist/architect Bill Pechet. Both works were unveiled during a public opening on Aug. 15, 2012.

Click here for more information about Sentinel of Truth.

RRC grad Scot Slessor (right), Consul General of Canada in Chandigarh, India, tours the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute with (from left) Dale Watts, Ted Maciurzynksi, Manishkumar Upadhyay, Dale Oughton and Eddy Lau.

Earlier this summer, Red River College played host to a returning graduate who’s now a diplomat working to promote economic relations between Canada and India.

Scot Slessor (Structural Drafting, 1982), has served as the Consul General of Canada in Chandigarh, India, since his appointment to the position in September 2010.

He visited the College on July 20, 2012, for a tour of the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute and to discuss possible partnership opportunities for RRC in India.

During his visit, Slessor met with RRC representatives to discuss the need for skills training and development in India, and to explore possible partnerships with post-secondary institutions there.

In particular, Slessor has been tasked with providing expertise in delivering and developing skills training in Punjab (where he’s stationed). If a partnership were to be struck, he would act as a conduit between RRC and the institutions in Punjab.

Over the years, Slessor has held a number of public and private sector positions, including stints with the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission in Toronto, and the Canadian International Development Agency and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in China.

Planning to hit the Winnipeg Fringe Festival this summer? Be sure to check out Run Ragged Company’s Daves of Their Lives, written and directed by Red River College’s own Dale Watts.

The hour-long soap opera spoof finds a formerly-successful but mentally exhausted businessmen — stuck in a loveless marriage with a menopausal wife, exploited by his stepmother and manipulated by his daughter and deceased dad — finding a second chance for happiness when a sultry young woman enters his life.

Daves of Their Lives marks the latest Fringe entry by festival regular Watts, Dean of Industrial Technologies at RRC. The show is being staged at Venue #2 (MTC Up the Alley), with performances on:

• Wed., July 18 (8:45 p.m.)
• Fri., July 20 (5:45 p.m.)
• Sun., July 22 (3:15 p.m.)
• Mon, July 23 (9 p.m.)
• Wed., July 25 (2 p.m.)
• Fri., July 27 (12:15 p.m.)
• Sat., July 28 (7:30 p.m.)

Tickets are $9 ($8 for students and seniors); click here for more information.