Alcoa Foundation awards $75,000 aluminum training grant to the Collision Repair Education Foundation

The Collision Repair Education Foundation announced that  Alcoa Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Alcoa, a global leader in lightweight metals technology, engineering and manufacturing, awarded the Collision Repair Education Foundation a $75,000 grant that will provide aluminum repair focused training and technical presentations to high school and college collision school instructors. Working together with industry partners, the Collision Repair Education Foundation will bring over 50 collision school instructors into the Chicago land area in March 2016 for several days of “train the trainer” aluminum repair technical training as this group is educating the future repair professionals of the collision industry. As more and more of today’s and future vehicles are being constructed with aluminum, it is crucial that current and future repair professionals complete aluminum repair technical training in order to repair consumer’s collision damaged properly.

“Alcoa Foundation seeks solutions that reduce weight, improve fuel efficiency, and minimize the environmental footprint of mass transportation,” said Alice Truscott, Program Manager, Alcoa Foundation. “As aluminum usage becomes more popular in the making of cars with these very sustainable properties, we value partnerships with organizations like Collision Repair Education Foundation that will help prepare the workforce.”

Collision Repair Education Foundation Director of Development Brandon Eckenrode noted, “We are very appreciative of Alcoa Foundation’s continued support and willingness to work together on providing collision school instructors with technical information about aluminum repair training. These instructors are able to bring this knowledge back to their classrooms and help students understand that repairing aluminum isn’t difficult, it’s just different.”

Additional information on Alcoa Foundation can be found at www.alcoafoundation.com. Questions about the aluminum training grant and/or the Collision Repair Education Foundation can be directed to Director of Development Brandon Eckenrode at 847.463.5244 or [email protected].

About Alcoa Foundation

Alcoa Foundation is one of the largest corporate foundations in the U.S., with assets of approximately $460 million. Founded 63 years ago, Alcoa Foundation has invested more than $615 million . In 2014, Alcoa Foundation contributed more than $22 million to nonprofit organizations throughout the world, building innovative partnerships to improve the environment and educate tomorrow's leaders for careers in manufacturing and engineering. The work of Alcoa Foundation is further enhanced by Alcoa's thousands of employee volunteers who share their talents and time to make a difference in the communities where Alcoa operates. Through the Company's signature Month of Service program, in 2014,  58 percent of Alcoa employees took part in  more than 1,000 events across 24 countries, benefiting more than 700,000 people and 500 nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit www.alcoafoundation.com and follow @AlcoaFoundation on Twitter.