The Auto Tech Club is helping to support American troops overseas with a unanimous vote to send $2,000 through the Operation Lightsabre Program, sponsored by Off Road magazine.

Rick Maynard, a faculty member in the Auto Tech department, subscribes to the magazine, which has a regular feature titled, “In Touch With Our Troops”

It contains letters from soldiers as well as news about progress in such areas as the Operation Lightsabre Program, an effort to equip troops with powerful lights for their vehicles to avoid explosive hazards on the road.

It’s common practice for the Auto Tech department to make donations. Students in the three-year program annually organize food and coat drives that are very successful.

Cash donations, however, are unusual for the Auto Tech Club, since they work hard to raise money for such activities as the annual Duel at De Anza, an autocross in which the club races its own car.

Maynard’s magazine membership and Operation Lightsabre inspired him to propose the idea of making a donation to the Auto Tech Club members, who voted unanimously to donate.

The money came from the club’s fund. In his letter to the magazine accompanying the donation, Maynard explained that the decision was a personal one to many of the students.

“I explained to them … that regardless of their position on the war, this is a cause protecting the lives of their peers who have chosen to join the armed forces. It could just as easily be them out there hunting down IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices],” Maynard said.

Operation Lightsabre began three years ago, when the editor of ORA magazine, Dennis Snow, received a request from soldiers in need of better equipment.

“Since your parent company is 4Wheelparts, we had received a request from a soldier asking if they could buy some bright lights to see IEDs before they explode,” wrote Andrea Friedenthal, the Operations manager at ORA magazine.

Though the soldiers already had some government-issue lights, they were insufficient to allow soldiers to see potential hazards in the war zone, and Maynard explains that many troops were still being killed by unseen IEDs.

So far, Friedenthal reports that hundreds of lights have been sent to those stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but De Anza Auto Tech club’s donation is the largest sum they have received so far.

“We hope this inspires others groups to donate as well,” Maynard said.

Groups and individuals who are interested in contributing or finding out more can go online to : www.4wheelparts.com/bravo.