Tuesday, October 23rd marked the first tour of the Legend Boats Campus by a group of high school students!  

16 students from St Charles College in Sudbury, ranging from grade 11 to grade 12 and all with a wide variety of interests toured the facility on Tuesday.  The idea was to give these students an idea of what was available in Sudbury for career development and to introduce them to what a meaningful career and amazing workplace can do for an individual.

Most students who are mechanically inclined think that their only avenue of employment once they’re done school is to get into the automotive industry.  In reality, there is an entirely different field that they may never have considered: Boats! Lots of Northern Ontario children grow up around boats and on the water, but many are unaware that Legend Boats has a full headquarters and production facility located right here in Whitefish.

This tour wasn’t just for the mechanically inclined teenagers in the group, either.  When many people hear Legend Boats or Duhamel and Dewar in Whitefish, their first reaction is, “oh, that’s a dealership right?” Well, while they are partly correct, it’s also so much more than that!  Because it is the headquarters facility, it houses every department necessary for a business to run, from Marketing, to IT, to Accounting, as well as Sales, Service, a Yard Crew and a full Shop for the Rigging of the boats.  

By taking the students through the process of buying a boat, every department necessary to making the physical product a reality, but also every department necessary to keep a facility running, these youths left with a much better idea of what they could “be when they grow up”.  Also, because the Legend campus was only built and opened within the last few years, it was easy to incorporate all sorts of aspects to making the workplace more modern, accessible and, overall a fun place to work. Some key points like the employee lounge, open work areas, a ping pong table and a full gym made the teens realize that they could be picky with where they decided to work in the future.  One even stated that the facility reminded them of what it would be like to work at Buzzfeed, what a compliment!

In a testimonial from the organizing teacher at St. Charles College, William Duncan, he’s stated that, “The students all commented on how the employees looked so happy and content with their jobs, it also gave the students an inside look at how companies such as yours provide local careers and great products to local community as well as nationwide.” and “The tour was well organized and very informative and provided a host of information about the diversity of careers at Legend as well as the production processes involved to maintain a higher standard and ultimately a superior product”.

“At legend your Mission Statement is to ” Create Memories”. We certainly had Memories created visiting you and hopefully my students will remember all the values you project as they move on in life.” Thanks Mr. Duncan! Memories were definitely created on our end as well. We look forward to hosting many more field trips in the future. For information and to book yours, contact Lisa Turcott at lturcott@legendboats.kinsta.cloud