Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Submitted Article

You may have heard the old adage, “Look good, feel good.”  Well, a new paint job on a vehicle can foster a more positive attitude and “put a pep in one’s step”.  We want that for our kids as well, but some of the county school buses had paint peeling off of their hoods.  To remedy this situation, the school system had two choices, purchase new hoods at around $4,000 each or send the hoods to be professionally repainted which would also cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars.  Or could there be a third choice?  Could this be an opportunity for skill to meet need within the schools?  

What seemed like a costly obstacle became an opportunity for some of our collision repair students to get hands-on learning, our county to save money, and our bus riders to be more proud of their school buses.  Darian Sandifer’s collision repair students at Cumberland Gap High School have been sanding old paint off of the hoods of six county school buses and their quarter panels.  Then, the classes have been sealing and painting those, thereby, saving the county thousands of dollars in repairs or replacements.  

The students enjoy having the chance to put their learning into action and watching their work driving down their community’s roads.  Mr. Sandifer is excited about this project.  He says that he likes to do projects like this, because his kids can look at these school buses and say, “Hey, I did that.”  This project started with ugly, paint-peeled bus hoods and has turned into something beautiful that makes our kids look and feel good.