Danielson's Josh Glaude is a half a world away, fighting the war on terror in Afghanistan. The Army Specialist's tour of duty has kept him from refurbishing a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse he bought just before his deployment last September.
That's where William Congdon's Ellis Technical High School auto body repair class comes in.
“I really wanted to do something for him while he was overseas. The car was in awful shape so we contacted Ellis Tech, which Josh attended,” Glaude's mother Kim told the Norwich Bulletin.
Josh's father brought the car to the school and Congdon got 10 of his students on the project right away.
“It seemed like a good challenge for the students,” Congdon told the paper. “A car like this is really a teaching tool.”
The kids have spent three to four hours per week over the past eight months repairing dents, sanding side panels and replacing the rear and front bumpers on the car. They are also doing some custom work Josh wanted, Congdon said. It's something they're put their hearts and souls into and it should be finished by June, he said.
“I did a lot of the body work. It was really dinged up when it came in and now looks like a totally different car. This was something I really wanted to work on, ” Brittany Brayman, 17, told the Bulletin.
Congdon says he updates Spc. Glaude on the class' progress through e-mail and pictures. The class will have it ready and waiting for him when he returns from his deployment next June.
