Thunder Bay, ON, May 20, 2008…Wardrop Engineering Inc. took top spot at Thunder Bay’s first-ever Can Build Competition held recently at the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce Annual Trade Show and Business Expo.

The panel of judges chose Wardrop’s “The Giant CANtribution” design as the winning project based on best use of labels, structural ingenuity, complexity of design, creativity, and meeting the regulation requirements.

The city’s Sleeping Giant, a rock formation and landmark that protects the harbour, inspired the Wardrop team. “It takes a ‘giant’ effort to help the hungry (and thirsty) around the world. Ships often carry food relief supplies to distant destinations; our project depicted a small load of local relief,” said Pat Kok, a member of the Wardrop team.

Thunder Bay’s Shelter House was the recipient of all the food used.  One of the major concerns the team encountered when determining the design was to make sure the project used food products that the Shelter House needed. With that in mind, the team’s design was made up largely of cans of coffee.  “The products used in building the design represented a drop in the bucket relative to the overwhelming and constant need, but our entry provided more than a few drops in the Shelter House’s 24/7 coffee pot,” he added. Wardrop’s waterfront scene was made up of about 700 cans overall, not including the bottles of water used to depict Lake Superior.

Ian McCormack, general manager of Wardrop’s Thunder Bay office said: ”The Wardrop team had a great time participating in the Can Build event.  It was inspiring to see our employees having fun creating a sculpture that was connected to the community and was indicative of Wardrop’s social responsibility.  There is already a buzz in the office about preparations for next year’s Can Build competition!

Over 12,000 people attended the three-day event that had over 150 exhibitors, a kids’ play area, seminars, demonstrations, and entertainment.

Wardrop is an international multi-disciplined engineering and environmental consulting firm providing innovative solutions to the energy, infrastructure, and mining sectors.  The company has been honoured as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers seven times and was recently recognized as one of the Top 20 Best Employers for New Canadians.