DOWAGIAC — Southwestern Michigan College Auto Technology’s Car Care at Kairis Day Sept. 26 quickly filled all 18 slots available for oil changes, tire rotations and general inspections.

Instructor Kyle Schrock organized students from two introductory automotive classes, with some second-years volunteering to help provide a learning opportunity to students.

There was no charge for labor. Owners buy their own parts — oil in this case.

“It was very beneficial for my students to gain real-world experience on a variety of different vehicles,” Schrock wrote in a thank-you email to participants.

Donations were directed to SMC’s Auto Club, which marks its first anniversary in October.

SMC has always encouraged faculty, staff and students to bring vehicles to be fixed, staff said.

“We are already scheduling another for November, the week before Thanksgiving,” Schrock said. “Students and employees traveling out of town will have a convenient place to get their oil changed before they go. I’m sure that one will fill up as fast as this one did. We had 10 to 12 students working in groups of three to four, so service was quick.”

Thanks to past donations, Auto Club has helped a couple of students who could not afford vehicle repairs, including a nursing student who needed her car to travel to local hospitals to complete her clinical rotations prior to graduating as a registered nurse, staff said.

“Helping that one nursing student complete her degree will, in turn, help hundreds of people in the future get the health care they need,” Schrock said. “The goal of Auto Club when it started was to create a community, whether it was working on a project or working on each other’s cars. Community is still the goal, and to help students who can’t afford car repairs.”

As a club project, Schrock wants to build a Road Runner, the Plymouth muscle car. The Roadrunner became SMC’s mascot the same year the car debuted, 1968.

Back then, automotive students had a big turnout in the campus vote, staff said.