The Collision Repair Education Foundation (formerly the I-CAR Education Foundation) has provided 2,000 Cintas technician shirts to automotive collision students nationwide this fall through the support of Audatex, a Solera company; AutoZone; Chicago Pneumatic; Craftsman; I-CAR and PPG Automotive Refinish. In addition to providing uniforms to collision students, the project helped raise $20,000 for the foundation’s Collision Repair Education Campaign fund that helps provide student scholarships, school grants and the foundation’s Ultimate Collision Education Makeover grant. In addition to providing a significant discount on the technician shirts and sponsor patches, Cintas Corporation donated the shipping costs of the 2,000 completed technician shirts.
Several hundred of the technician shirts were distributed to collision students attending NACE and SEMA; roughly 1,000 shirts were provided to 52 schools that applied for the Foundation’s 2010 Ultimate Collision Education Makeover grant, 175 will be distributed to all of the auto body and refinishing students competing at the 2011 national SkillsUSA competition this June in Kansas City, and the remaining shirts will be distributed to other schools that have applied for recent grants and scholarships.
“I cannot begin to describe how excited my collision students were when they first put on their new uniforms,” said Kurt Chrysler, collision instructor for Tuscola Technology Center in Caro, Mich. “They insisted that I take them up to the school store, located in the front of the school, in hopes that students from the other classes would see them. They had huge grins on their faces and an extra spring in their step. I heard several students make comments about how professional they looked. These new uniforms have truly been a blessing to our program. Thank you so much!”
Area 30 Career Center Collision Instructor Rob Worman in Greencastle, Ind., said, “I would like to start off by saying thank you to the technician shirt sponsors and the Collision Repair Education Foundation. The shirts give the students a sense of belonging and unity. They also give the class one more reason to take pride in their work. The students will be wearing the shirts when we display our show car at the 2011 World-of-Wheels in February in Indianapolis.”
“My students love them. They wear them in the lab, and we are the only class that sports this type of lab shirt,” said Botetourt Technical Education Center Collision Instructor Donnie Sale of Fincastle, Va. “To my students, these shirts set them apart from the other programs. It also lets our program project a sense of professionalism within the student. Thank you so much for the shirts.”
Education Foundation Executive Director Scott Kruger said, “This is the second year of the foundation providing these technician shirts to collision students, and the feedback we receive from the students and instructors is incredible. Students walk around school with their heads held high and with a new sense of pride and professionalism through these shirts."
