Kelowna

Photo: Ragnar Haagen

Jordan Taylor takes his swings during the UBCO Car Smash, a fundraising event for the student chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

It was a smashing good time for those who took part in one of the annual UBCO fundraising events, simply known as “Car Smash.”

The event took place Wednesday morning in the campus courtyard and was organized by the student chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

“We send volunteers to Africa during the summer for four months. So our goal is to fundraise $7,000 for each student we want to send,” says Karen Robles, one of the organizers.

“Hopefully this is the most popular one of the year. Students really like taking out their stress on the cars and we do other events during the rest of the year.”

Robles says this is just one of many fundraising events used to establish connections with other groups on campus and in the community. The group has a pancake breakfast planned for Friday and also work with some of the bars in town.

The suggested donation was $5, and the amount of time you had with the car depended on whomever was keeping track at any given time. The weapon of choice seemed to be a metre-long piece of pipe welded to a sledgehammer, affectionately referred to as Thor’s little brother, or something to that extent.

Second year engineering student Matthew Barriault was lucky enough to enjoy first crack at the beat up Volkswagen Jetta, which was donated by a local scrapyard.

“(It was) pretty awesome, I’ve never broken new ground on a car before,” he laughed.

“I didn’t expect the windshield to give way that easily. You can’t smash a car and not go for the windshield first. I don’t think there’s any situation where that is acceptable.”

Dozens of students crowded around the car, yelling encouragement or mocking the undergrads as they flexed their muscles – all for a good cause.