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LSS in the News

Program provides families in need with wheels

May 19, 2009
NBC-TV10 Rhode Island
 
By Mario Hilario, Anchorman

PROVIDENCE—A 1997 blue Saturn might look like just a car, but for someone it’s going to be their life line.

A program, called Good News Garage, takes donated cars, repairs them and resells them at a low cost to families in need.

“We work with a lot of single moms, people just trying to reach full time employment opportunities. We’re a program of Lutheran Social Services,“ said Carolyn Venne of Good News Garage.

The program has had 300 clients in Massachusetts. The Saturn is the first vehicle to be offered in Rhode Island. Reardon has been working for several years to bring the program to the Ocean State.

“What they say in Good News Garage is donate a car, change a life. And that’s really what I was hoping to do,“ said Lutheran Pastor Dana Reardon.

The program partners with local repair shops that make the cars ready for the road at a discount. The first to sign up in Rhode Island was Coletta’s Garage and Towing on Richmond Street in Providence.

“We will pick it up and bring it in. We do a 72-point inspection and notify them of what we found and what needs to be repaired,“ said Al Cook of Coletta’s Garage.

Good News Garage paid about $1,000 to get the Saturn fixed and that’s the going price for the car. A recipient hasn’t been chosen yet.

To qualify you have to be without a car, but also have a job or a job offer.

“There’s people out there that need it, and with the economy the way it is right now, there are a lot of needy people,“ Venne said.