Greased lightning for a good cause

It turns out that Chester County is an auto-body trainee's idea of utopia.

High-income residents, expensive cars, and winding rural roads add up to a lucrative place for collision-repair specialists to make six-figure salaries.

And 45 students at Technical College High School (TCHS) Brandywine are on their way there, learning the magic of making dents - or worse - disappear. But along the way, the teens are doing a good deed.

Students at the Downingtown school are the first high schoolers in the nation to participate in a program that repairs older vehicles to be donated to needy families and charitable groups.

The students are part of Recycle Rides, a seven-year-old program of the National Auto Body Council that has insurance companies, paint suppliers, parts vendors, and collision repairers collaborating to not only fix up a car, but also give it away.

"I always say my job is teaching 40 percent bodywork and 60 percent work ethic and giving back," said Mark Serfass, longtime automotive-collision instructor at the school. "You have to work on the soul to have good employees and a good community."

For five weeks the students have been restoring a gray 2008 Nissan to its former roadway glory. They added bumpers, a hood, and a radiator, and painted it - the first high school group to complete a car for Recycle Rides.

TCHS signed on this year to the program, which was created, in part, to help improve the image of the auto-repair industry. Nationally, more than 800 cars have been repaired and donated since the program got up and running in 2007. Collision shops and auto-related businesses, including car rental companies that donate older cars, typically partner with nonprofit groups that can use a car as part of their mission or find a family for whom transportation has been a life-altering challenge.

"People underestimate how important transportation can be," said Bob Byrne, Northeast Philadelphia coordinator of the Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network, which provides shelter and services to help homeless families regain their independence. Transportation can be critical to securing and keeping jobs, and picking up children from school and day care.

The Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network is a division of Family Promise, a national program that works to fight homelessness. The Philadelphia network partnered with TCHS Brandywine to find a family who could use the car.

The repaired Nissan will go to a single father with two children who is part of the network's program and is driving a 15-year-old minivan that already has logged nearly 270,000 miles.

"The day we told him he was awarded the car, it took him 15 minutes to get the [van] started," Byrne said.

The car, which has fewer than 50,000 miles, will be presented to the family on Saturday as part of TCHS Brandywine's second annual Car Show and Community Day.

Cars typically are donated to Recycle Rides for financial reasons - fixing the car would cost more than it is worth, said Taylor Bowes, chair of TCHS Brandywine's advisory board, who also serves on the auto body council's board of directors.

That was the case with the 2008 Nissan, which sustained severe damage in an accident. The Geico insurance company donated it. LKQ/Keystone Auto Parts in Pennsauken and Exton Nissan donated parts. Black Horse Auto Body in West Chester donated other materials, and PPG Industries, through R.W. Mallon Auto Paint in Warrington, donated the paint.

Staff at 3D Collision Center in West Chester mentored and helped supervise the students at the school's state-of-the-art automotive shops in TCHS Brandywine's three-year-old, $37 million building.

The auto-collision course, a three-year program, is one of 20 vocational programs at the school run by the Chester County Intermediate Unit.

Often, the program is a haven for kids who have difficulty finding their niches but discover them in auto shop, said Serfass, who wants to expand Recycle Rides to other schools.

Keon Ridgeway, 17, of West Chester, began TCHS Brandywine in carpentry studies. Then he switched to auto collision, what he calls a "cooler" program with an added component.

"I feel good knowing that I'm giving to someone who struggled more than me," Ridgeway said of Recycle Rides. "It's right that they should have it."

45 students are enrolled in Recycle Rides at Technical College High School Brandywine.

20 vocational programs are available are TCHS.

7 years is how long Recycle Rides has been restoring cars.

800+ cars have been repaired and donated by students since Recycle Rides began.

EndText

610-313-8211