Toyota Gives Shop Class Two Brand New Tacomas
Talk about an incredible gift:
Officials from Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas, the truck manufacturing plant in San Antonio, will visit Southside High School at 9 a.m. today to donate two new Toyota Tacoma pickups to the school’s automotive class.
The Tacomas will be part of Toyota’s program that supports vocational education in San Antonio high schools. Students will get hands-on training experience as they’ll be able to tear down and rebuild the brand-new Tacomas.
Can you imagine what it would be like to learn about cars on a brand new Tacoma? I think my shop class had some spare parts and a very nasty-looking 74′ Nova that had been beaten more than it had been worked on…and I’m pretty sure my shop class had it good.
It’s great to see Toyota’s commitment to the communities around their factories, and this gesture is just one of many things Toyota has done to thank San Antonio for hosting the truck plant. In addition to giving these two trucks to a local San Antonio high school, Toyota has also:
- In 2008, Toyota sent nearly 1000 idled plant workers out into the San Antonio area to clean-up and improve city parks. Everything from painting picnic tables to rebuilding and repairing playground equipment.
- Donated land purchased for the factory to the city of San Antonio for use as a park area
- Donated other Tacomas to other high schools around the city
- According to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce:
In 2010, the employees contributed 7,000 man hours to local causes and donated over $1 million in grants, scholarships and sponsorships to San Antonio organizations
According to recent news reports, Toyota workers in San Antonio have been told to expect some production delays as a result of the Japan earthquake. You can bet that Toyota will assign these workers to community projects if they’re out of work for any significant amount of time.
While I’m sure some San Antonio residents have found fault with some of Toyota’s actions in the community (I’m not sure what, but there’s probably something), Toyota seems to be a pretty decent local business, don’t you think?