BY KARISSA MILLER
Career Academy and Technical School’s automotive collision repair program was one of a dozen schools selected to participate in Collision Repair Education Foundation’s (CREF) pilot donation program.
CATS Auto Body Repair teacher Michael Bowman explained that he was contacted in July about participating in a program that is being offered in Texas and North Carolina.
“It’s 12 schools involved, which includes colleges and high schools. A lot of colleges are running high school programs,” he said. “It’s a pretty big deal for us being one of the 12 getting to try this out.”
“Basically, the focus of the pilot is trying to find a better way to get the donations they have out to schools,” he added.
Bowman said that CREF receives donations from companies and then distributes them to schools. In the past years, CREF has donated items like safety glasses and sandpaper to the CATS auto body program.
As an instructor, Bowman said he relies on industry partners so that his students have up-to-date tools, equipment and other resources in the shop. He said he looks forward to this collaboration and will know more in the coming weeks.
In the past, CREF has taken a “shotgun approach,” where they box up supplies and hope that the school needs what is inside the box. Now, they are moving towards making it more like Amazon, he said, where schools can go on and shop for free.
“It will allow us to pick out what we need. Right now, there will be items put on the donation platform to see how it works,” Bowman said.
Once the program expands nationwide, there will be more than 800 participating schools.
According to Bowman, auto repair is a good field to pursue, but schools often struggle to offer collision programs because of the costliness of tools, equipment and supplies.
Bowman will also participate in weekly meetings to provide feedback before it is rolled out to other schools. He mentioned that actual donors can load what products they want to donate.
“Collision repair materials are extremely expensive. A pint of paint costs me around $200 for just a pint of color. It becomes very expensive to take 15 to 20 kids and spray paint,” Bowman said.
“If it wasn’t for these donations, there would be a lot of stuff I wouldn’t be able to do with my students,” he said. “Now, that I can cater to what they need—it will make a greater impact.”
Bowman, who writes a grant each year to participate in CREF donations, has been a teacher at CATS for eight years. He is a ASE Master Certified Collision technician, certified in estimating and G1 Light Repair. He also taught at Wilkes Community College.