Forklift Rally 2009

On Saturday May 2, 2009 the long awaited 12th Annual BC Championship Forklift Rally took place at the Cloverdale Agriplex. With almost 60 competitors and 300 people in attendance, the new venue at 18,000 sq.ft. was a welcome change from the venue of the previous 2 years (which was about 7,500 sq.ft.) – can you say “tight fit”!

The event began at 8:30 with the course orientation and at 9:00am the official competition began. A big change noted this year was the number of families that came out to enjoy the event. We had consciously sought to have people bring out their families but were stunned at how successful we were (so much so that we are looking at adding things such as a bouncy castle at the 2010 Rally to further help parents enjoy the event while providing some distraction for the young ones).

With Johnston Equipment supplying the Coffee & Donuts in the morning and then the Smokies & Pop at lunch, all attendees ate well. Then just before lunch Angus Reid of the BC Lions (with one of the Cheerleaders in tow) showed up to take pictures and sign autographs.

At approximately 2pm with all of the competitions complete, the crowd gathered for the Awards Ceremony and to hand out prizes to the audience (so many in fact that it seemed like gift giving would never stop).

The Canadian Material Handling & Distribution Society (CMHDS) would like to thank all those who competed, attended and volunteered their time to support the event. Special thanks go out to our sponsors – Ives Training Group who was our Platinum Sponsor and provided all of the judging, Johnston Equipment, Adecco Employment & East Penn-Deka Battery for their Gold Sponsorships; thanks to Johnston Equipment & Harding Forklift for supplying the Material Handling Equipment and finally a big welcome to WorkSafeBC who came on board for their first year in support of the event. We look forward to many more years of their support and working together to promote Forklift Safety!

Left to Right – Standing: Brian Devereaux (President – CMHDS), Angus Reid (BC Lion’s), James Ralphs (London Drugs), Eric Symons (London Drugs), Mark Chiccarelli (Wallace & Carey), Randy Hiles (EV Logistics), Rob Vetter (Ives Training Group / Platinum Sponsor), John Brackett (EV Logistics), Vanessa (BC Lions Cheerleader) – Left to Right – Front: Chris Bronson (VersaCold), Gary Siu (London Drugs), Steven Calvert (London Drugs), Jake Moreau (VersaCold)