This weekend, a group of volunteer mechanics snacked on burgers and brats between repairing brakes and balancing tires at All American Auto Repair in Longmont, all in the name of helping single parents with car repairs.
The barbecue was thrown by PEARL — a nonprofit geared toward supporting single parents — in appreciation of the volunteers who lent a hand during PEARL’s Car Care Clinic on Saturday.
Held every second Saturday of the month, PEARL’s Car Care Clinics “provide single parents a free oil change and 30-point safety check to ensure they can safely and consistently get to work, daycare, medical appointments, etc.,” PEARL’s website states.
Single mother Angel Weathersby attended the clinic on Saturday, where mechanics did a safety inspection, rotated the tires and changed the oil of her car.
Since her son was born seven years ago, Weathersby has relied on PEARL’s car clinics to keep up with maintenance on her car, which is a necessity in her life, she said.
“(PEARL’s Car Care Clinics) have been a tremendous blessing for me,” Weathersby said. “The mechanics there have fixed some pretty big things on my car over the years, and it’s such a big relief and weight off my shoulders to be able to count on them.”
Financially, Weathersby hasn’t been in a place to be able to afford a lot of things done to her car during the clinics, she said, “so it’s a blessing that they just do it out of the goodness of their hearts.”
For single mother Sarah Sewold, the most meaningful part about the car clinics is “getting the truth about what’s really happening with my car, and not feeling like there’s a dead end afterward.” Rather, “PEARL and the mechanics are going to be there to help me,” she said.
“I wouldn’t know what to do without them. It’s just a really honest, awesome resource for single (parents),” Sewold said.
Transportation Programs Coordinator Scott Owen has been in charge of facilitating PEARL’s Car Care Clinics since the organization began offering them approximately 12 years ago.
Owen partners primarily with All American and Best Auto Repair of Longmont, who take turns hosting PEARL’s Car Care Clinics in their auto repair spaces. The auto shops and PEARL also work together to forego charging single parents for car repairs during the clinics, or to create alternative payment methods for them, Owen said.
In addition to mechanics, up to 20 volunteers routinely show up to help fix the average of ten cars that come in during each clinic, Owen said.
Among the volunteers at PEARL’s Car Care Clinics is Loren Millspaugh, an employee of a U.S. Postal Service auto body repair shop located in Denver. Millspaugh began helping out at the clinics about four years ago, back when he was a Longmont resident.
Although attending the clinics means more traveling for Millspaugh, he enjoys giving his time to a cause that positively impacts the lives of single parents, he said.
Furthermore, Millspaugh believes his background in automotive repairs makes him a valuable asset to the group, most of whom don’t share his level of expertise in the field, he said.
While mechanics from All American volunteer their time and efforts during the clinics hosted at their home shop, Best Auto Owners Shanti and Chris Carlson pay their mechanics overtime to work at PEARL’s Car Care Clinics on their Saturdays off.
For the Carlsons, however, “helping people out — especially single mothers — is more important than anything else,” Shanti said. “It’s hard for single mothers to get ahead, and if they can have some kind of help and know that they’ll be able to get to work or get their kids to daycare, it’s nice to know that we can do that for them.”
According to Owen, local auto shops’ and volunteers’ work at PEARL’s Car Care Clinics “takes a lot of pressure off of these single parent families,” he said, “and that’s our goal. They have enough pressures in their lives, so if we can alleviate the pressure in this way, then we feel like we’ve done our jobs.”
CORRECTION: This article has been altered to reflect the correct name of Chris Carlson.
