Good News Garage gives away 2 cars

By Matt Sutkoski, Free Press Staff Writer

Katie Carroll sat down Wednesday for the first time in her new 2008 Chevrolet Impala and turned to her son Jacob, 5, for a verdict.

"I like it," Jacob said, reaching out to the knobs and lights on the dashboard. "It's very nice. It's beautiful."

Carroll concurred.

She and Traci Wright of Hinesburg on Wednesday each won a 2008 Impala through Good News Garage, a program of Lutheran Social Services. The two women were picked from more than 100 applicants seeking the cars.

Wright seemed stunned as she sat in her new car at Good News Garage. "I can't believe it happened. I feel like I won the lottery," she said.

It all started this year when Good News Garage Founding Director Hal Colston appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. When the show aired, Rick Hendrick of Hendrickcars.com and owner of several NASCAR racing teams donated 10 Impalas for use by needy people in New England. Four of the cars went to Vermont.

Colston placed two of the cars through his Winooski nonprofit antipoverty group Neighborkeepers. The other two went to Good News Garage.

Good News Garage launched an application process where people who wanted the cars submitted information about their finances, a statement of need and a letter of support from a friend. A selection committee assembled by Good News Garage waded through the applications to decide who would receive the cars. The garage announced the winners Wednesday.

One of them was Carroll. She works at FedEx and at a Price Chopper supermarket. At the same time she's taking online classes to earn a degree in forensic psychology and takes care of Jacob and another son, Lucas, who will turn 2 in March.

Until recently, she leased a car. When the lease ran out, Carroll of Essex Junction said she tried to buy it but could not obtain a loan. The Impala solved her transportation crisis, she said.

Wright said she needs a car to ferry around her two children, ages 12 and 10. Wright said her family depends on her income from her job at Pizzagalli Construction Co. because her husband is ill and cannot work. A 1992 Chevrolet Lumina with "too many miles on it" recently conked out, she said.