Front Royal Auto Shop changes lives one car at a time | Winchester Star

Front ROYAL — The Vehicle Treatment Clinic is a very good location to get a car repaired. It is also a position that has changed 39 lives and counting.

Invoice and Sandy Extensive, homeowners of the Vehicle Treatment Clinic in Front Royal and Warren County, have been managing a nonprofit and ministry referred to as Cars and trucks Changing Lives because 2020. The pair repairs donated cars and trucks and provides them away to qualifying recipients in the community.

Given that 2018, they have specified absent 39 autos. They gave absent five so far this year. But as the method grows, the pair is seeking toward the local community for assistance. 

In 2018, Monthly bill Long made the decision he desired to give a car absent for Easter, and the couple began Cars Transforming Lives as a contest.

They opened it up for individuals in the local community to nominate individuals that have been in will need of transportation. After advertising the contest, Sandy Extended said they acquired much more than 40 nominations.

The Longs gathered a few community members to form a committee to evaluate applications and choose the greatest candidate.

Just after interviewing four candidates, one particular of the committee users advised the Longs that he had very good news and terrible information. The very good news? All 4 men and women had been deserving candidates. 

“And I stated ‘Well then what’s the negative news?’ And they stated, ‘You have to have to give away 4 autos,’” Sandy Extended mentioned.

The Longs experienced two cars in the chute ready to donate, but they did not know where by to get the other two.

The Longs and their evaluation committee went out to supper to discuss what they ended up heading to do, when two of the committee associates obtained up to phone their spouses. When they arrived again, they mentioned they wished to donate their possess excess automobiles for the contest.

“We did it once more in 2019. And that year, we gave away three automobiles,” Sandy Long claimed.

In the same way, more than 40 people today ended up nominated that calendar year, and the Longs only had 1 vehicle to give absent. But they found two additional. 

The Longs turned their contest into a nonprofit formally in February of 2020.

The couple is effective with several churches in Warren County as perfectly as organizations like the Phoenix Task, United Way, Salvation Army and St. Luke Neighborhood Clinic. 

Because a local community member demands to nominate the receiver, the Longs glance to case administrators and members of these corporations to select the appropriate person.

Most of the cars and trucks are donated from the group, Sandy Long reported. She said the automobile shop will consider any car or truck donated in a 20 mile radius to Entrance Royal — no matter if it’s functioning or not.

The couple repairs the automobiles at the shop but they are hunting to companion with the community as their nonprofit grows. 

Because the Longs are operating the plan by themselves, they are seeking for some volunteers. Sandy Prolonged explained they could use folks to enable with administrative function such as emailing, fundraising and grant producing. She mentioned they are also wanting for companions like auto mechanic colleges or detailing outlets to assist maintenance automobiles. 

And of program, they could generally use car or truck donations. 

Soon after currently being nominated for Vehicles Modifying Lives, a candidate need to generate an influence assertion so the Longs can pick the suitable person and have that facts for potential grants.

“Some of the words penned on people impact statements are really from their heart, and it will just deliver me to tears,” Sandy Long mentioned.

A single 12 months, a mother acquired a auto and her 16-calendar year-previous son told the Longs that he was now in a position to indicator up for sports and just after-university plans.

“They experienced never ever had a car or truck in their whole daily life,” Sandy Extensive reported.

Not only do they get thank-you’s from the recipients but also close friends of the recipient. The Longs mentioned they’ve been given a lot of kind words from folks in the local community who were providing rides to automobile recipients.

Invoice Extended said he and his wife normally test to give again to the group in any way they can.

“We just want to be superior company stewards, and we will not strategy on halting. It can be dreadful often, but it can be incredibly rewarding,” Invoice Extended said.

Sandy Extensive mentioned an car repair shop primarily based out of North Dakota, which has specified absent all around 350 automobiles, influenced the couple to set their dream into truth.

“So we are only on 39. But you’ve received to commence someplace,” she claimed.

Monthly bill Prolonged reported he and his spouse have been on the way to an award banquet in Woodstock when they seen the automobile in front of them had a sticker on the again that go through “Cars Modifying Life.”

“In front of us was a auto we might supplied away a few yrs ago,” he reported. “It just stayed in the group and it can be benefiting anyone in this article regional in our local community.”