Heavy Duty Appreciation
April 23, 2010
Edmonton warehouseperson Shawn Plouffe is proud to be Christopher Crant’s brother-in-law. Currently serving in Afghanistan for the 41 Combat Engineer Regiment, Chris, a.k.a. corporal Crant, helps develop new roads for patrols and clear landmines from existing roadways.
A few months ago, members of the Combat Engineer Regiment staved off homesickness by building a barbecue out of scrap metal. While Shawn says they placed the Caterpillar logo on the barbecue “just because it looked neat,” it inspired Chris to extend the yellow iron theme and boost morale at the same time. He emailed Shawn to ask if he could track down some Caterpillar hats.
“I was originally going to buy them and send them on my own,” Shawn said, but when his supervisor, Dwaine Shears, saw pictures of the barbecue, Dwaine wanted to foot the bill. Then when the order came to Finning’s Heavy Duty Gear store, sales manager Colin Robinson decided the bill wouldn’t rest with Dwaine, either. He donated the hats himself.
Colin, who recently retired from a 20-year career in the Army Reserve, still remembers a care package he received years ago, when he was serving in Bosnia over Christmas. “It was very much appreciated,” Colin says. “I know how important gestures of support are.”
Shawn notes the number of people involved in getting hats to the members of the 1 and 41 Combat Engineer Regiments proves Colin’s point. “With a lot of goodwill from several people, we were able to send the message that we’re thinking of them,” he said.
In the photo: Seven members from the 1st Combat Engineer Regiment in Afghanistan.