Four students from St. Mary Catholic Elementary School visited Tom Davies Square on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 to enter their bridges in the fourteenth annual Bridge Building Competition. Cody Brown (Grade 6 ) and Davey Meeks (Grade 5) and Cassidy Fortin (Grade 6) and Carli Meeks (Grade 6) entered the competition as partners to put their bridges to the test. The students had to build their bridges with certain specifications including using the provided bridge building kit that only has in it six balsa wood strips and one bottle of Elmers School glue. As well, the bridges had to be a certain size to be able to be submitted for the competition. All of the bridges are then subjected to the “Bridge Crusher” which is a machine that tests their maximum load carried before breaking into pieces before the students eyes. Representatives from the Sudbury Chapter of the Professional Engineers of Ontario were on hand to make sure that the all of the submissions were built following the specific guidelines. The winner is determined by the bridge which is able to carry the largest load to weight ratio before it is demolished. Last year’s winner was from St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School. The students were thrilled that the Board’s Co-op Coordinator, Michel Grandmont provided them with t-shirts, and that David Bateman from Capreol Graphics printed the graphics for them. As well, each and every student who participated in the competition at Tom Davies Square received a prize ( ie. Chapters gift certificates, t-shirts, caps, badminton racquets, slinkys, key chains, etc. St. Mary’s would like to thank Dave and Tammy Meeks who were the parent volunteers who took the time to accompany the students to the competition and cheer them on!