>(Editor’s note: This account was posted on the LincolnTalk listserv on June 15 and is reprinted with permission, though she asked that we not use her name.)
The Lincoln resident (right) who donated her car to Second Chance Cars with Marine veteran John Thomas, who was the recipient after voc-tech students fixed up the vehicle.
“In January I donated my 2006 Subaru Forester to Second Chance Cars, a Concord nonprofit organization that matches car donations with in-need recipients who are looking for cars to be able to get to work.
“After my donated car was checked out by a second chance mechanic, it traveled to Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School in Wakefield, where the mechanics class instructor and students thoroughly went over the car, looking for anything to fix or adjust. Then it went to the body shop students who spent months learning how to fix and paint the many dents I had put on it over the 15 years I owned it.
“I’m happy to report that last Friday I attended the car award ceremony for my vehicle and got to meet the person who received my car — a young Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who was spending a grueling four hours a day using public transportation to get to and from his job on a fishing boat in Gloucester. Now he will be able to get there on his own in just over an hour.”
Second Chance Cars made a short video introducing the teachers and students who worked on the car, as well as a visibly moved John Thomas (the ex-marine) and the car donor, who revealed that she came from a long line of Detroit auto workers. She added that she’s a big fan of vocational schools (“I would have loved to have done this!”) and was happy her car could go to a “real person” who needed it. “I like to recycle and I think there’s no reason you should sell a car for parts,” she said.
Students then pulled the cover off the car to reveal a like-new vehicle with all the dents removed. “I want it back!” the donor joked.