Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Andrew Woolfolk/Louisa County Public Schools.
Students from Louisa County High School’s automotive technology program during a car presentation in February 2025.

As those of you who volunteer already know, giving makes you feel good. In Mineral, Virginia, there are teenagers who are learning how great it can feel when something they are learning in school enables them to give hope to people in need.

Sydney Page reports at the Washington Post, “Jessica Rader knew she was getting a car. Still, when the keys to a 2007 gold Prius were handed to her, she wept.

“ ‘It’s not just about the car,’ said Rader, 40. ‘It’s about community.’

“Students at Louisa County High School in Mineral, Virginia, spent several months repairing and refurbishing the car before they presented it to Rader, a single mother of three children.

“ ‘Kids who never met me cared about me enough to put hard work into a vehicle to make sure myself and my kids were safe,’ Rader said about the Prius she received in 2023. ‘I got to meet all of them; it was breathtaking.’

“For the past eight years, students enrolled in the school’s automotive technology program have been reviving timeworn vehicles and giving them to single mothers for free. They work on about five cars per year. …

“The giveaway program is done in partnership with Giving Words, a local nonprofit that supports single mothers, mainly through car repairs and donations.

” ‘A broken-down car means she can lose her job, miss her appointments,’ said Eddie Brown, who founded Giving Words with his wife in 2018. ‘They’re relying on Ubers, buses and family, and some of those can be unreliable.’

“Brown and his wife were both single parents before they met. ‘The idea came from our own experience being single parents and struggling with transportation issues,’ Brown said. Brown taught himself how to do simple car repairs and soon began fixing other people’s cars in his driveway. …

“Brown said he and his wife wanted to focus on helping single mothers because around 80 percent or more of single parents in the U.S. are mothers. They formed partnerships with local repair shops, as well as Louisa County High School and Charlottesville Area Technical Education Center, to be able to do more repairs and help more women. The cars are donated by individuals or automotive businesses.

“Since its inception, Giving Words has given more than 60 cars to single mothers in need of a vehicle. High school students have worked on about half of those cars, and the rest have been refurbished by repair shops. …

“About 20 students work on each car, handling such tasks as brake and tire repairs to heating and cooling systems, oil and fluid changes, and battery testing.

” ‘They get a real shop experience,’ [Shane Robertson, an automotive teacher at the school] said. ‘You’ve got real life intersecting with education.’ …

” ‘The whole class is very rewarding,’ said Holden Pekary, 16, who is in his second year of the automotive program. … Before winter break last month, he and his classmates presented a repaired vehicle to a woman with a baby.

” ‘We raised the garage doors, and we all clapped for her,’ he said. ‘It was nice. I put the license plate on the car for her, and she had a little baby in her arms.’ …

” ‘It gave me a different perspective on adolescents,’ Rader said. ‘It was nothing in return for them.’ …

“Rader had long struggled with drug addiction, she said, and after becoming sober in March 2022, she lived in a transitional home, where she was told about Giving Words.

“ ‘It wasn’t even three months later, and they gave me a car,’ Rader said. ‘Because I had that vehicle, I was able to go from a part-time job to a full-time job; I was able to start school.’ …

“Giving Words also gave her free oil changes, as well as diapers and clothing for her sons. She said having a vehicle changed her life.”

More at the Post, here. See also a charity I like called Second Chance Cars, a “Massachusetts-based nonprofit that provides affordable used cars to working people in need,” here.