ASSIGNMENT UPDATE: We were asked to provide new brakes for a single father of three. He had been using one hour of vacation time each day in order to get his young children safely off to school and then catch the bus to work. But his vacation time will run out as of Monday, so getting his car back on the road had become critical. Here's the original entry if you missed it.
REFERRING OFFICER: Daniel Snyder, Columbus Division of Police, 11 Precinct, South Central Columbus
Amazing! That's the only word to describe how quickly you came together to help Tom get new brakes on his car. In less than four hours, we exceeded our goal of $700. In addition, Ofc Jesse Perkins (Zone 2 CRT) heard about what was happening and offered to help Ofc Snyder do the brake work, meaning we only had to pay for parts!
We met up with Ofcs Snyder and Perkins early this morning and gave moral support while they did the hard, cold work on the ground at Tom's home in the Hilltop (his vehicle couldn't be moved). Approximately seven hours later, Tom has a safe vehicle to drive with new brakes, pads, rotors, calipers, brake lights, and fluids. Ofc Snyder will also install a new serpentine belt in the near future, but they ran out of time to get that done today (the belt was purchased though).
We made friends at three different Advance Auto Parts stores today: Sullivant Ave, 6515 West Broad, and Janitrol Rd. They were all extremely nice, very helpful (especially the times our volunteer went in there on her own), and they extended us a great discount. Thank you, Advance Auto Parts! We only got a picture of Jonny at Sullivant Ave, but "hello" to West Broad and Janitrol Rd, also.
Because of your generous donations, Advance Auto Parts's wonderful discount, and Ofcs Perkins and Snyder giving up their days off to do the work on the brakes, we were able to give Tom a check for $400.
Tom asked us to post the following message of thanks:
"I want to thank everyone associated with this gift that you've all given to my family. I have been without a car for over a month, due to lack of money. I have been pushing bills back, buying less food and worrying about Christmas coming up, to try to get this taken care of. This allows me to breathe once again. My kids have been as patient as I can expect them to be, with being trapped to the house for a month. But as you can expect, they are excited about being able to do something! Lol. From the bottom of my heart...my kids and I thank you all, for helping to save my job, Christmas and family!"
