CREDIT: JEN DOEDE
Fanshawe students and staff raced RC cars in the James A. Colvin Atrium to help raise funds for the United Way campaign.

Fanshawe students and staff members showed off their competitive spirits last Wednesday at the third annual United Way RC Car Races event. The event gave students and staff the opportunity to race RC cars around a race track with the goal of completing a lap with the fastest time. All proceeds went towards the United Way campaign.

The event took place at the James A. Colvin Atrium from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and participants paid $5 for one lap around the race track and $10 for three laps. Trophies and prizes were handed out to the competitors with the top three fastest race times.

The first place winner received a variety of prizes including a championship trophy, a TaylorMade golf bag, a grand champion t-shirt, dinner for two at Saffron's, Fanshawe fitness bag and Fanshawe gear.

Brenda Henry, the manager for environment, health and safety services at Fanshawe, explained that all departments within the College attempt to host a United Way event during the academic year. The department of Facilities Management and Community Safety chooses to host an annual RC car-racing event as their contribution to the charity fundraiser.

Henry said that in past years, the event was only open to staff within the department. The 100 staff members from the department were able to raise $1500 last year.

“The event has always been a tremendous amount of fun. People get really serious and competitive. It's usually four hours of solid laughter. As you can imagine, a lot of people wipe out their RC cars on the track and just have a lot of good-natured competitive fun racing with each other for the prizes,” Henry said.

Students and staff were also permitted to bring in their own RC cars to the event. Henry said that there are numerous RC car enthusiasts on campus, “We've had people calling up to find out what the track was going to look like, because they wanted to make sure they brought their best RC car,” Henry said.

A Fanshawe community member had the opportunity to race an RC car against Fanshawe president Peter Devlin as a result of having the highest bid in the United Way Silent Auction. Two other Fanshawe community members with the highest bids the day of the competition had the opportunity to race Devlin as well.