The Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF) announced that American Family Insurance has made a $12,000 donation to fund a dozen Benchmark Grants. Twelve schools around the country were awarded $1,000 each, which will be used to enhance their collision repair education programs.

“Our company strongly believes in educational opportunities,” said Danny Henderson, associate vice president, Enterprise Claims, American Family Insurance. “It’s especially satisfying to provide grants to programs like these that directly support the insurance industry and insurance professionals.”

Eligibility for the American Family Insurance Grants awards was achieved by applying for CREF’s 2020 Collision School Career Readiness Benchmark Grant. This grant is designed to recognize schools that excel at educating students in collision repair, but due to strained school budgets, the programs require additional financial assistance to provide the tools, equipment and supplies necessary. Recipient schools use these funds to enhance their students’ experience and elevate the caliber of their graduates, ensuring that students are prepared to successfully enter the workforce upon graduation. Applications for the 2021 Collision School Career Readiness Benchmark Grants will be available online in March 2021.

The schools that will benefit from American Family Insurance’s $1,000 grants are:

• West-MEC (Phoenix, Ariz.)
• East Valley Institute of Technology (Mesa, Ariz.)
• Gateway Community College, Central City Campus (Phoenix, Ariz.)
• Morgan Community College (Ft. Morgan, Colo.)
• Warren Tech (Lakewood, Colo.)
• Aims Community College Automotive Programs (Windsor, Colo.)
• Kennedy-King College (Chicago, Ill.)
• Marengo Community High School, District 154 (Marengo, Ill.)
• Lex La-Ray Technical Center (Lexington, Mo.)
• Wenatchee Valley Technical Skills Center (Wenatchee, Wash.)
• Southwest Wisconsin Technical College (Fennimore, Wis.)
• Germantown High School (Germantown, Wis.)

Industry members interested in supporting CREF’s efforts to assist secondary and post-secondary collision repair training programs should contact Brandon Eckenrode, director of development, at (312) 231-0258 or [email protected]. Monetary donations can be made online.