"We introduced Green Drop Cares to show our appreciation for the people in our community who dedicate their lives to helping others."
- Farhad Ghafarzade
On Sunday, November 18, Green Drop Garage had it’s first Green Drop Cares work session. The program is built around the concept of the giving back to the everyday hero — social workers, teachers, firefighters, single parents — folks who have built their life around giving back to the greater good.
The process of getting these cars ready for Sunday’s repair was a little different. Normally, when we prepare a car for repair, it’s pretty cut and dry: figure out what is needed, go over cost and time expectations, order the parts, perform the repair, keys back in a customer’s hand.
For this program, there’s a balance between figuring out what each applicant was comfortable covering and then asking Green Drop technicians and suppliers to pitch in where they can. Our suppliers ended up being the unsung heroes of the day: both FMP and O’Reilly Auto Parts donated brake parts and NAPA donated a steering pump. These donations greatly reduced the costs of each repair.
As the day began, each recipient was welcomed with a fresh Coco Donut - big shoutout to Coco’s for donating breakfast!
The repairs themselves were efficient and went off without a hitch. Sometimes when repairing a car, unexpected things can happen: nuts and bolts can be stripped, we remove one part and get a closer look to see some other problem is going on, you just have to expect the unexpected. However, the universe was on everyone’s side for this project and none of these pitfalls occurred. Nevertheless, all of this work did make us hungry and we can extend a thank you to ¿Por Qué No? For lunch!
As the day came to a close, we were able to perform all repairs and even had a little time to spare to discuss how we can streamline this program for future recipients. One of the recipients, Abigail, let us know her thoughts on the day. Her family relies on their car and, in her words, “if we didn’t have [it] that would be a huge detriment to our family. Applying to the program was a no-brainer. It's was the easiest thing in the world and is so amazing for our household. Having that peace of mind our car will run safely is so crucial. As public workers who help low barrier people, we don’t often get much gratitude. When it comes to bills or discounts, it means so much. It's incredible to know there are good things in the world!”
“This has been coming for two years now," said Noe, our Service Advisor for the event. "I’ve been wanting to do something like this. To see it come to fruition and full circle, was very fulfilling. I’m very excited about it and to see where it goes from here.”
For more information or to apply to be part of the Green Drop Cares program, visit our page.
