Car donation can sometimes be a two-way street. That’s what some might conclude about the car we recently donated to the University of Alberta in Edmonton for a mine rescue event. Of course, that’s not our usual thing. Our usual thing is to accept donations of cars. But in this particular case, we were happy to make an exception. That’s because the car we sent along to the university was to be used for educational purposes, which nicely fits in with our mission.

So what’s the story with Kars4Kids donating a car to a university? It’s like this: a few months ago, a faculty member at the U of A engineering department reached out to us, asking we had an old sedan that they could use for a safety demonstration.

Mine Rescue Event: Jaws of Life Demo

Turns out we did. Especially for an event meant to both educate students and raise awareness about safety and the work of first responders. The event in question was the MinE 295 Mine Rescue Event and the car was used in one of the demonstrations. In this particular demonstration, a set of electric vehicle extraction tools (Jaws of Life) were used to show firsthand how a vehicle is dismantled to rescue passengers after an accident.

While the safety demonstration event was planned mainly with engineering students in mind, other students, and even a few fire departments participated as well. And of course, we were happy to lend a hand to this endeavor.

Not long after the safety demonstration, Jeffery Boisvert, PhD, PEng, an associate professor at the U of A wrote to say, “Thank you for donating the car to this event! I really appreciate it!”

Which is very nice. For the record, however, we would like to state that Kars4Kids was glad for the opportunity.