Aug. 15, 2011 — Ralph Gilles, Chrysler Group’s senior vice president of product design, will be joining the Collision Repair Education Foundation in announcing the 2011 Ultimate Collision Education Makeover $50,000 school grant winner during SEMA. The Makeover grant honors a high-performing school that has been doing an outstanding job in educating students in collision repair, but is in need to financial assistance to improve their program’s teaching materials and equipment.
“I applaud the work the Collision Repair Education Foundation is doing to help fund and further educate prospects in the collision business,” said Gilles. “With the many challenges facing students throughout the automotive industry today, the need for well-trained, passionate and reliable employees is never going away, and it's grants like this one that can make a significant difference in the lives of promising students and allow them the ability to earn a good living.”
The Ultimate Collision Education Makeover school grant debuted in 2009 when Steel Center Area Vocational Technical School (Jefferson Hills, Penn.) was chosen as the recipient of the award. In addition to Steel Center AVTS receiving $80,000 from the award, the schools that applied for the 2009 grant still benefited from the Ultimate Collision Education Makeover program. In 2010, the award went to Bridgerland Applied Technology College in Logan, Utah.
Through the generous support of industry members, Bridgerland’s collision program is on track to receive over $100,000 in donated tools, equipment and supplies.
School collision programs can download the makeover application from the Education Foundation’s website at CollisionEducationFoundation.org and must be postmarked by Aug. 31, 2011.
