PERRYVILLE, MO (KFVS) - When you think of school supplies, you might not think of cars and engines, but that’s exactly what a group of students at Perryville Area Career and Technology Center needs right now.

Thomas Canter, automotive services technology instructor at PACTC, is asking community members to donate vehicles or engines for his students to use as learning tools.

“Our program is in need of a couple of 1996 or newer vehicles, as well as 3 or 4 engines from 1996 or later, for hands-on instruction,” he said. “The cars can be wrecked, but we’d like the engines in the cars to be running, even if they need some repairs. We can use 4, 6 or 8-cylinder engines.

“We don’t really care what shape the engines are in; we’re going to put them up on engine stands and tear them apart to diagnose the problem and then fix them.”

PERRYVILLE, MO (KFVS) - Twenty students from Perryville Area Career and Technology Center competed at the 2013 Missouri SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Confernce.

It was held April 4-6 at Linn Technical College, and four of them will move on to the national competition in June.

The Welding Fabrication team of Dalton Brewer, Kaleb Dauster and Gabe Meyer won first place at the SkillsUSA Missouri State Competition and will now compete in the National SkillsUSA event in June. See related story.

Brock Miesner, who won first place in the state in HVAC-R (heating, cooling and refrigeration) and then at the national competition last year as a senior, competed at state again this year as an adult and will also compete at the nationals in Kansas City, Mo. Miesner is the son of Clifford and Eileen Miesner of Frohna and a 2012 graduate of Perryville High School.