Under a blazing sun that made the Rinker Quarry feel more like Egypt than Vancouver, families streamed into Dozer Day. At the ticket gate, volunteers handed out goody bags to all the kids. Included in the bags were yellow plastic helmets for the junior construction workers to wear. Once they had donned their safety gear, the kids and families got in line for a ride into the event site. More volunteers (part of a 500 person crew) guided the crowd onto a loading ramp that looked like it could have been used to build the base of a pyramid at Giza.
One articulated hauler after another would then back up to the ramp, and the visitors would carefully scrunch together on benches for their ride through the rock pit. At the entrance, the kids hopped out and began the most difficult part of their day, deciding what to do first. Many made a beeline for the Kids Dig, a huge mound of moist sand, just right for pint-sized earth movers. Kids were occasionally distracted from digging by the roar of a souped-up Ditch Witch, the Super Witch VI, whose 350 horsepower small block Chevy engine reverberated now and then across the grounds. Nearby, some kids tested their balance on the rim of a TB175 rubber track in the VIQAN display, while others ran time trials back and forth across an MST 2300 track, which weighs in at 5,000 pounds. Still other budding weight lifters tried to get a SK500 track, weighing in at mere 70 pounds, up off the ground.
From there kids could get in line to take a turn sharing the controls of a Sunbelt dozer that scraped a deepening pit throughout the day. By mid-afternoon young operators were treated to a mini thrill ride as the dozer would climb steeply up one side of the mound, teeter for a moment at the top, and then come crashing down to the delighted squeals of the kids at the controls. Nearby, novice operators used the boom of Feenaughty’s excavator to knock down a variety of objects.
Spread across the yard were various other excavators, backhoes, and cranes, each with its own group of kids queued up, waiting for a chance to try out the controls. Still other youngsters happily flew down the inflatable monster truck slide or crawled through corrugated pipe tunnels.
In addition, families could stroll though a line of booths to collect stickers for their hats, spin for prizes at the George Schmid and Sons display, take part in a musical trivia contest at the Radio Disney booth, or get a hot dog or hamburger from Beaches.
By the end of the day, kids were tired and happy. With strains of “We Are the Champions” drifting his way from the Radio Disney speakers, Arron Stephens reflected on his son Grant’s experience, “He loves all the equipment, the tubes, everything.” That sentiment was echoed repeatedly as people left. Renee Nutter, who coordinated the event, said that when she asked children what they had enjoyed the most, the standard reply was, “Everything!”
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