{"id":8326,"date":"2019-10-23T12:08:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/?p=8326"},"modified":"2019-10-23T12:17:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:17:34","slug":"thunder-bay-boilermakers-help-local-hospital-while-working-on-boiler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/thunder-bay-boilermakers-help-local-hospital-while-working-on-boiler\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Bay Boilermakers help Local Hospital while working on Boiler"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Boilermakers

Boilermakers presenting a cheque to the Atikokan General Hospital<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Boilermakers from the Thunder Bay union hall and their employer Venshore Mechanical Ltd raised $1,070 for the local hospital while performing annual maintenance on the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) generating station biomass power boiler in Atikokan, Ontario.<\/p>\n

Brother Lindsay Gannon, a second-generation Boilermaker with Local 128 who has been in the trade for 15 years and is the Boilermaker Superintendent for Venshore Mechanical Ltd, explained the job \u201cWe are working on a biomass power boiler doing mostly tube section replacements on the waterwall and superheater elements, some tube overlay to replace lost wall thickness and tube shielding as well. This boiler was recently converted from coal fuel to wood pellets.\u201d He added \u201cWith that conversion the boiler burns a lot cleaner with less accumulation of particulate on the walls. They no longer need to run the wallblowers to clean their waterwalls as a result of this new fuel, so we are removing them and their wall tube openings and replacing those areas with new tube sections. This will help eliminate the repairs in those areas and make this power generation facility more efficient and hopefully continue its success for this community that relies on its operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

OPG\u2019s staff hosted a charity luncheon in support of the Atikokan General Hospital during the maintenance outage at the generation station in their staff lunchroom. OPG was kind enough to invite the Venshore Mechanical crew to participate. To attend each person was asked to donate ten dollars with all proceeds going to a local charity of their choice.<\/p>\n

Lindsay said \u201cMy site contact Braden Fischer gave me the invite about a week prior to the luncheon taking place so that morning after our regular toolbox meeting had wrapped up, I mentioned to the crew when the luncheon would be taking place and asked if anyone was interested to let me know. Instantly everyone was for it and eager to donate their ten bucks.\u201d Lindsay continue \u201cI sent an invitation to Venshore management back at their head office in Thunder Bay to see if anyone else wanted to participate in the event. Venshore Mechanical President John Jurcik responded by picking up the tab for the crew\u2019s luncheon and wanted to know if Venshore could offer up any additional support for the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venshore donated $750 along with the crew\u2019s donation of $320 for a total of $1,070 to the Atikokan Hospital.
\nDarrel Bray, Business Agent for the Thunder Bay Union Hall, said \u201cBoilermakers see that their role in serving the public goes beyond building, maintaining and repairing local infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brother Gannon wanted to make sure the Boilermakers were recognized. He said \u201cThe quality of work and safety is very high with this crew. Morale is great and the trades are working well together. We did a collection for the family of a very well-known and liked pipefitter who recently lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. Boilermakers are the tightest knit group out there and they are always willing to help out any brother or sister in need.\u201d He added \u201cI\u2019ve noticed a lot of mentoring from the experienced members to the next generation on this job and that is great to see that knowledge being passed down! It is vital to our future success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boilermakers who worked on the project are as follows:<\/p>\n

Joe Nykorchuk – Foreman
\nMarc Stocco – Foreman
\nCurtis Degagne \u2013 Job Steward
\nRyan Whalen \u2013 Welder
\nSteven Phillips – Mechanic
\nJames Depaulo – Welder
\nAustin Fenelon – Welder
\nSpencer Melnick – Welder
\nDavid Hirvela – Mechanic
\nPeter Berardi – Welder
\nWendy Muzyka – Welder
\nAdam Caldwell – Mechanic
\nRobert Cook – Mechanic
\nJared Carson – Welder
\nWade Carson – Welder
\nScott Robinson – Mechanic
\nMike Burrows – Mechanic
\nDave Gillon – Welder
\nBrian Gillon – Welder
\nBill Barton – Welder
\nClaude Courtemanche – Mechanic
\nJordan McDonald \u2013 Mechanic
\nDarren Tetreault – Mechanic
\nBill Laframboise – Mechanic
\nBlaine Embury – Welder<\/p>\n

Venshore Mechanical is an industrial multi-trade contractor for over thirty years in Northwestern Ontario. To learn more about them click here<\/a>. The Thunder Bay Union Hall & Training Centre is shared by both Lodge 555 & 128 due to the division between Western Canada & Eastern Canada for the IBB goes through Thunder Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Boilermakers from the Thunder Bay union hall and their employer Venshore Mechanical Ltd raised $1,070 for the local hospital while performing annual maintenance on the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) generating station biomass power boiler in Atikokan, Ontario.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8336,"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326\/revisions\/8336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boilermaker.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}