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Students Fix Cars & Give Them To Single Moms

When Jessica Rader received the keys to a fully refurbished 2007 gold Prius from students at Louisa County High School in Mineral, Virginia, the 40 year old single mother of three couldn’t hold back tears. It wasn’t just about getting a car, it was about discovering that kids who had never met her cared enough to put months of hard work into making sure she and her children would be safe. Students enrolled in the school’s automotive technology program have been reviving old vehicles and giving them to single mothers for free for the past eight years, working on about five cars per year while learning real world mechanical skills including brakes, engines and diagnostics. The incredible giveaway program runs in partnership with Giving Words, a local nonprofit founded by Eddie Brown who taught himself car repairs and started fixing vehicles on his driveway after experiencing transportation struggles as a single parent himself before meeting his wife. Brown and his wife wanted to focus on helping single mothers because around 80 percent or more of single parents in the United States are mothers.

Since Giving Words launched, the organization has given more than 60 cars to single mothers in need of vehicles, with high school students working on about half of those cars while repair shops handled the rest using donated vehicles from individuals and automotive businesses. Before receiving her Prius in 2023, Rader had long struggled with drug addiction and after becoming sober in March 2022 she lived in a transitional home where she relied on lifts from friends and family to get to work and transport her children to activities. Student Austin Pekary said that before winter break last month, he and his classmates raised the garage doors and presented a repaired vehicle to a woman with a baby, and he put the license plate on for her while she held her infant, describing the moment as nice and knowing where the cars are going makes the work truly motivating. Automotive teacher Shane Robertson calls the program gratifying and says it’s a great learning experience, while Rader remains stunned three years later by the students’ dedication, noting it gave her a different perspective on teenagers since they got nothing in return but changed everything for her family.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2026/01/12/car-repair-high-school-students-single-moms/

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