Tears filled her eyes, and Linda Bianchi nearly broke down and cried. She was talking about the 11-year-old car Good News Garage had given her.
The car makes nearly everything in life possible for her.
“It gets me to work. I can’t make ends meet without this job. It’s how I socialize. Everything would fall apart without it. It’s my life,” says the 65-year-old Springfield resident.
Bianchi is a recruiter for the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. She tells people older than 55 about the agency’s Senior Community Service Employment Program, and she gets them to sign up. The program places seniors into part-time jobs. Bianchi couldn’t work without a car.
“I can’t just take a bus to an office. I have to go to where the seniors are,” she says.
That means Bianchi drives around the greater Springfield area to food pantries, shelters, senior centers, shopping malls, churches — wherever seniors get together. The 2009 Pontiac Vibe with its 144,000 miles on the odometer makes it all possible.
“I’m scrambling from site to site all the time and now with winter and the bad weather coming, I can’t walk from place to place,” she says.
Bianchi is under a doctor’s care for attention deficit disorder. It’s also painful for her to walk because of problems with her spine. The rehabilitation commission put Bianchi in touch with Good News Garage, based in Burlington, Vermont. The organization provides reliable used cars to those who need them.
“People donate their old cars to us, and we have them inspected by mechanics. It costs an average of $2,500 to get the cars repaired and back on the road,” says Thomas Kupfer, marketing specialist for Good News Garage.
Bianchi got her car in October. She’d been without a vehicle since before the pandemic struck. Her church gave her an old car, but it died even after major repairs. “We gave it our best shot, got it fixed and a month later it broke down. I was broken hearted,” she says
Her son also tried to help, giving her a vehicle she calls “a little bomb.” That died too. Finally, Good News Garage came to the rescue with the Pontiac.
“My whole life changed when I got this car. It helps keep my life going. It’s a key to life. Now I can go to the doctor, see my friends, and keep my job,” she says.
Good News Garage has awarded well over 5,000 cars to people throughout New England since its founding in 1996. The organization accepts just about any vehicle that has four wheels and can be towed to a repair shop.
“If we can’t fix the vehicle so its passes inspection and provides reliable transportation, then we sell it at auction and those proceeds help fund the program,” says Kupfer. State financing also helps keep Good News Garage running.
For more information, visit the website, GoodNewsGarage.org.
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November 26, 2020 at 08:31PM
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‘My whole life changed’: Springfield resident receives car from nonprofit Good News Garage - masslive.com
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