Ryerson Alumni - 2018 Summer - 48

Engineering students
find inventive ways
to make Volkswagen
Beetle more iconic

One of Mech Force 10's
over-the-top pranks: hanging
the VW Beetle Chassis by a
cable from the top of the Victoria
Street parking garage.

48

Ryerson University Magazine / Summer 2018

AT RYERSON, the Volkswagen
Beetle has gone from being an
object used in mischief to a motivator
in charitable challenges.
Originally used in pranks by a group of
mechanical engineering students known
as Mech Force 10, the bug first appeared
on April Fool's Day 1980 parked on the
sidewalk in front of the Egerton Ryerson
statue. The next year, students dragged
the car into the second floor walkway
between Jorgenson and Kerr Hall.
The most famous beetle caper occurred
on March 29, 1982, when Mech Force 10
put a bug on top of the old school façade
in the quad. What would have been an epic
prank in March 1987 was interrupted by
security when Mech Force 10 was caught
trying to test the bug's fluid mechanics in
Ryerson's pool.

The tide started to turn in 1988
when the Ryerson Engineering Student
Society was formed and organized an
annual engineering week on campus-
an opportunity for fun activities in
support of non-profits. In the early days,
"Car Bash" was the most popular activity
with community members paying a
dollar for three smashes to an old car
using a sledgehammer, with all proceeds
going to charity.
This evolved into the Bug Push in
March 2003. Now 15 years old, the
Bug Push is an annual tradition where
engineering students push a VW Beetle
around the quad for 24 hours to fundraise
for SickKids Hospital. To date, they've
donated more than $20,000.
Who knew a little bug could have such
a big impact? -By Antoinette Mercurio

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RYERSON ARCHIVES

A bug of
all trades
REMEMBER WHEN?



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