At a Glance
By hosting the Classic Car and Bike Show and Touch-A-Truck Event, Connellsville Area Career & Technical Center (CACTC) raises community awareness about the CTC and provides students an opportunity to develop their technical and employability skills.
Description
For several years, CACTC faculty and students have planned and hosted the Classic Car and Bike Show and Touch-A-Truck Event in the school’s parking lot. The event, at which people can “touch a truck” and also win prizes, engages faculty, students and the community.
Faculty members plan the event and reach out to the community and local businesses for support. The planning committee is comprised of the Heavy Equipment instructor, the Auto Collision instructor, the district’s Workforce Development Coordinator, and the district’s STEM Coordinator. Members utilize their connections in the community to secure vehicles for the event and donations for prizes and raffle basket items. Multiple CACTC staff members attend to support the event and assist their students who are working at the event.
Students from several program areas help with the event planning, contribute materials and work during the event. Throughout the planning stages and during the event itself, these students are applying what they have learned in their labs. They also develop communication and presentation skills as they interact with the public at the event. Culinary arts students make and sell food during the event. Students in the heavy equipment operations program operate simulators at the event, and cosmetology students do face painting. Carpentry students auction off playhouses they have built. Students in SkillsUSA work the raffle basket station, serve as parking attendants and collect canned food items for the local food bank.
As Shawna Little, the workforce development coordinator, states, the event is “a total team effort by the CTC” and highlights the great work done by CACTC students and faculty.
Impact
CACTC uses proceeds from the Classic Car and Bike Show and Touch-A-Truck Event to pay for the materials purchased for the event and then donates the remaining proceeds to community organizations.
Contact
Connellsvillle Area Career & Technical Center
https://cactc.casdfalcons.org/
Shawna Little, Ed. D.
Workforce Development Coordinator
slittle@casdfalcons.orgv