March 16, 2026
What happens when you challenge women in engineering with an unexpected project? In the case of 70 engineers from Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards, they roll up their sleeves, assemble into teams and get to work.
While these engineers are typically focused on ship-related work, last Monday they gathered at the Museum of North Vancouver to celebrate International Women’s Day, competing in a ‘bike build-athon’, putting together children’s bikes for a local non-profit.
Women workers at Burrard Drydock Co. Ltd., 1945. NVMA 1421
The North Shore Neighbourhood House, a charitable organization that provides accessible community services to North Shore neighbours who need it most, has surprising ties to the shipbuilding industry.
‘The House’ was first established in 1939 by local residents who realized the increasing need for childcare services on the North Shore. With men going away to war, women needed to work – and many of them were employed at Burrard Drydock (now Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock) in the Shipyards District.
Today, the House continues to support local families and will help these bikes find their homes across the North Shore, empowering children to get active and have fun.
Before the 14 bikes were dropped off by Seaspan’s facilities team, they needed to be assembled. So in true engineer fashion, the competition began. Teams split up into groups of four or five, intentionally mixing up different departments to encourage people to mingle and get to know each other.
“It was great to see women taking leadership roles. Right away somebody has to take charge, and it’s nice to see people be confident and vocal.” — Bianka Labelle-Robert, Outfitting Engineer
From directors to interns, women across Functional Engineering, Project Engineering, Detail Design, and Engineering Services were now working together, vying for the title of the best bike. It was all hands on deck as they worked together to attach wheels, tighten screws, and secure handlebars in place. Once the bikes were assembled, teams decorated and named them before presenting their bikes to the rest of the group.
“We’re engineers. We like putting things together and we like competition,” said Kelly Livanou, Outfit Engineering Manager. “For this event, we aligned with International Women’s Day and built something that we can all relate to. As part of the North Shore community we wanted to give back while having some fun.”
Amrit Grewal, Manager of Electronic Engineering who helped co-organize the event along with Kelly, is part of Seaspan’s Women in Engineering committee, a group focused on increasing female representation across engineering.
“I am grateful to our leadership team for supporting this event and for helping to further diversity and inclusion efforts across the business.” she said.
Lisa Hubbard, Executive Director of the North Shore Neighbourhood House, thanks the room of engineers.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this group of women and the work we’ve done to grow our organization to include many powerful women,” said Jim Carr, Sr. Vice President, Engineering. “Many of the women involved in this initiative met for the first time at the event and by the end of the day, they not only built bikes for an incredibly good cause, but they built long-lasting connections with other women that will support their own career growth.”
Lisa Hubbard, Executive Director of the North Shore Neighbourhood House, also stopped by the bike building event to say a few words:
“These bikes will have a long-lasting impact on the children in our youth program and support so many parts of their lives. It will get them riding, help with health and feeling connection, and give them a sense of pride. If you’re the only kid in school who doesn’t have a bike, you can imagine what that would feel like,” she said.
The Pinky team presenting their bike.
Before enjoying lunch and having a further chance to connect with women across other engineering teams, the winning buildathon bike needed to be selected. After excellent presentations from all fourteen groups ,”Pinky” (named after it’s bold colour) was announced to be the winning bike, following the team’s compelling pitch about chasing your dreams.
“What a day! It was so fulfilling to build this bike with a great team of women and know that our bike will put a smile on a child’s face,” said the team who built Pinky, composed of Alicia Hayne, Grad Rotation Program Engineer; Rachel Kong, Mechanical Engineer; Rhyzl Osorio, Structural Detail Designer; Salina Safi, Project Engineering Intern and Salma Abdel Hafez, Electrical Engineer.
“We hope they will have as much fun riding the bike as we did assembling it, and that Pinky’s little wheels will propel them toward their big dreams.”
This is what some of the other bike build-athon participants had to say about the event:
- “As a young woman in engineering, it was super inspiring to see so many powerful women in one place.” — Sadie Beaver, Mechanical Engineering Intern
- “As part of Seaspan’s Graduate Rotation Program, events like this are a great reminder of the importance of staying well rounded and continuing to learn across different areas!” — Maryam Chaudhry, Graduate Rotation Program Engineer
- “It was great to see women taking leadership roles. Right away somebody has to take charge, and it’s nice to see people be confident and vocal.” — Bianka Labelle-Robert, Outfitting Engineer
Check more photos from the day in the gallery below:
