Lion Sid Harrell and Carol House from Wheels4Hope
Tonight we had Carol House from Wheels4Hope as our guest speaker. Carol is the External Relations & Compliance Coordinator. At its core Wheels4Hope is a faith based organization that accepts donated vehicles and processes them with the intention to be able to donate them to local people who need transportation. Their slogan is “Turning Donated Cars into Local Blessings!”. Or, as Carol says: “Recycling Cars, Changing Lives”
Their goal is to help people that need help with transportation needs. The candidates for vehicles must have a job and must be referred by a partner agency. Wheels4Hope has many partner agencies that work with people with needs and which can qualify the candidate to determine if a vehicle is necessary in a given situation.
They also have many partnerships with local garages and repair centers. Many of these local businesses will donate their skilled labor to assist the program. So Wheels4Hope will buy parts and can often get those parts installed at no expense.
The third kind of partner that Wheels4Hope has are congregational partners. These partners assist with financial donations, volunteers and sometimes finding potential candidates.
Sometimes vehicles that are donated are not ideal for refurbishing or for candidates. For example, luxury cars are generally too expensive to maintain and sometimes vehicles donated are beyond reasonable repair. In those situations the cars are either sold for parts or at auction or to the public. This is another way that the organization generates revenue to pay for the parts to repair other vehicles.
In 2015 there were almost 700 cars donated (125 of those were in December) and of those 135 were placed with individuals. The main location is in Raleigh on S. Saunders St. but there are also locations in Greensboro and they are opening another in Asheville as well.
Lion Sid Harrell is a volunteer at Wheels4Hope and has donated 3 vehicles in the past and purchased one for his son-in-law.
For more information about Wheels4Hope visit their web site at Wheels4Hope.org