March 16, 2011, SECAUCUS, N.J.—The National Auto Body Council (NABC) is expanding its Recycled Rides vehicle repair efforts to schools with automotive collision repair programs, the organization said Wednesday during its quarterly board meeting in Secaucus, N.J.
NABC created a subcommittee for its Recycled Rides program, called Recycled Rides for Schools, which will oversee the effort.
The program will provide secondary and post-secondary schools—high schools, colleges, vocational technical schools and community colleges that have auto repair programs—with vehicles to repair for families in need, said Rick Tuuri, board member of NABC and chairman of the subcommittee. The schools will work with local collision repairers to ensure the vehicles are repaired properly before they are donated.
The NABC is piloting the Recycled Rides for Schools program throughout 2011. The pilot includes five schools: one high school in California and four vocational technical schools across the country, Tuuri said.
Audatex is sponsoring the pilot with funds it recently donated to the Collision Repair Education Foundation, Tuuri said, who is Audatex’s vice president of industry relations. “The Collision Repair Education Foundation has $100,000 of restricted funds that we want to gear toward costs associated with the Recycled Rides program for schools.”
The NABC plans to expand the program in 2012 after the pilot period is over. Tuuri says the ultimate goal is to get all 200 schools involved with the Collision Repair Education Foundation involved.
In addition to providing vehicles to families in need, a goal of the program is to give automotive students experience repairing new model vehicles.
“We want to get students late model vehicles to work on and repair,” Tuuri said. “Some schools are still working on vehicles from 1987, and they keep fixing the same car over and over again.”
This program will allow students to learn modern technology and understand cars that are on the road today so they can be efficient technicians when they graduate, Tuuri said. “The program will help improve school curriculums, help instructors teach, help students learn, and help the industry obtain productive technicians in shops,” Tuuri said.
To get involved or obtain more information, contact Rick Tuuri at [email protected], or Chuck Sulkala, executive director of NABC, at [email protected].
