GUELPH, Ont. — BLM Transportation Group of Kitchener, Ont., has donated more than $51,000 to Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning to support skills associated with the bus and truck industries.

BLM, with more than 170 tractors and 500 trailers is one of Canada’s biggest for-hire carriers. This past Wednesday, officials from BLM and Conestoga met with Motive-Power faculty and students to make the presentation and dedicate one classroom specifically to the program.

Here’s BLM Transportation Group President Jim McConnell on the charitable move: “It is our pleasure to be involved with the truck and coach program at Conestoga, which provides a much-needed supply of qualified entrants to the repair and maintenance side of the trucking industry. Our involvement and support is a means of giving back to the industry we love to be in.””

In the fall of 2006, Conestoga opened a major expansion to its campus in Guelph.

This renovation and construction project created a larger motive-power trades center for use by apprenticeship students in the automotive service technician program and to allow introduction of apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in truck and coach technician.

The BLM Transportation largesse helps students in two areas of their programs. One is equipment for the truck and coach shop. Conestoga has been able to secure workbenches, complete with vises, for use in the shop. Also, the the donation will go towards obtaining a number of heavy-duty engine stands which will permit students safely and securely to work on large engine blocks. The shop now also has a high-quality pressure washer for use in cleaning equipment and the shop area.

Soon to be in place are a heavy-duty engine crane and a valve-grinding machine.

The donation has also made renovations and equipment for a classroom at the campus possible.

The work on this room includes upgrades such as painting, new flooring and lighting, and a new ceiling.

BLM’s donation also allowed Conestoga to obtain bulletin boards, new tables and chairs for the students, shelving and countertop units for equipment storage and demonstrations, plus instructional aids such as a lectern unit with a control panel for faculty use in connection with other new equipment such as monitor, speakers, ceiling mounted video cage and digital video projector.