SAVANNAH — Savannah Technical College recently came to the rescue of an old trailer of the Southeast Georgia Chapter of the American Red Cross.
This fall, 12 auto-collision repair students, enrolled in department-head Keith Padgett’s refinishing course, washed, sanded, re-caulked, waterproofed, and repainted the trailer and refinished the taillight covers and rims.
The almost-new trailer will be put into service immediately.
“This trailer was the very first disaster shelter trailer we had for our chapter,” Red Cross Disaster Services Director John Wright said. “When the paint came off with washing, we knew we couldn’t put it back in service. We also knew we didn’t have the funds to purchase a new trailer.”
The project, done as a community-service project for auto-collision technology, took Padgett’s class about a month.
“The American Red Cross touches so many lives in so many ways, when they called to ask for our help, we knew we had to help them,” Padgett said. “My students learned a lot from this project. Ordinarily, we work on cars, so this was different for them.”