Barbed wire was a key component of this year’s obstacle course. Photo courtesy of Stock Xchng.
Student-run club Enactus BCIT, hosted the “Call of Duty” team challenge military obstacle course on October 9. This is the third year that student-run club Enactus has put on the event in support of the conversion program scholarship.
Sponsored by the BC/Yukon Command of the Royal Canadian Legion, the Legion Military Skills Conversion Program supports past and present military personnel to move forward with their civilian career by going to school and training for their next adventure, according to the program’s BCIT homepage.
Ken Keene, who is a BCIT student studying business administration, is also a reservist and the military student advisor for the BCIT Legion Military Skills Conversion Program.
At this year’s event, he told The Link, “This program allows soldiers like me to get a degree much faster than I would otherwise, which is terrific. It uses my military experience for credits for courses, and gets you advance entry into certain programs. It’s an excellent program.”
Event organizers invited teams of four to compete in a time-trial obstacle course, which began with a crawl under a canopy of barbed wire. Then students had to flip tires, duck under hazards, dive over hurdles, and sprint to the finish, explained Keene.
Many of the teams came with colourful or wacky costumes. The Link caught up with a team from the School of Cuddling and Academic Studies, at least according to their T-shirts.
“It’s exercise, and that’s always good to break the stereotype of computing people, and we like to challenge ourselves,” said Akos Sebestyon.
“It was extremely difficult and a terrible idea on my part, and I promise never to do it again,” joked Chair of Cuddling Hung Le in an interview with The Link. “No, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun.”
It may sound tough, but thanks to the cheers of onlookers, and the lively encouragement of military personnel, participants escaped with no apparent injuries, save for a few frayed pants that got caught on the barbed wire.
In the end, Legion Project Manager Tamara Renwick said the ten competing teams helped raise $285 for the scholarship. The bragging rights and $200 prize went to the Dream Team, the first group to start the obstacle course, said Renwick.
The spirit of goodwill seemed strong for this year’s edition of the event, and some plan to train for next year’s race as early as this year.
