In my experience, students often perceive the parking lot behind ACC as somewhat of a dead zone. Walking through it, its most noticeable features are its abundance of bare asphalt/concrete surfaces, lack of people, and, of course, the parked cars—often old and/or damaged—crowding the area. However, in the right circumstances, the parking lot can become much more than just a storage space for the auto tech program’s cars.

Unbeknownst to most ACC students outside of this program, the parking lot is currently a hive of activity: students walking to and fro, yelling, and manually pushing around cars. The reason? With spring break quickly approaching, many of the vehicles in the parking lot have to be rearranged or brought inside before the school is empty of people.

This task requires a high level of not just physical effort but also coordination. Mr. Castro could be heard yelling “Forward! Forward!”, desperately attempting to control the cluster of students, each pushing hard against the car. Apart from just verbal communication, moving the cars is a logistically challenging task because each tire typically needs to be put on a dolly with its own set of wheels first.

“It’s this way with most modern cars,” says Arlington Tech senior Remi Barciela. “We don’t have a key to move the car, so we do this.”

In this case, the team didn’t have 4 dollies of the same size, so the back of the car was lifted much higher into the air than the front, adding a whole layer of complexity to the process. Who knew all of this was happening right behind the school?